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HISTORICAL CLASSIC READINGS.— No. 4. 



King Philips War, 



AND 



Witchcraft in New England. 



r 

THOMAS HUTCHINSON, 

the last Governor of Massachusetts under British Rule, 




NEW YORK: 

Effingham Maymrd & Co., Publishers, 

771 Broadway and 67 & 69 Ninth Street, 



Historical Classic Readings. 

With hitroductions and Expla?iatory Notes. 
For Classes in History, Reading, and Literature. 



From 40 to 64 pages each. Price, 1*2 cents per copy ; $1.20 per 
dozen ; §9.00 per hundred ; §80.00 per thousand. 



The following Numbers, uniform in style and size with this 
volume, are now ready : 

1. Discovery of America. Washington Irving. 

2. Settlement of Virginia. Capt. John Smith. 

3. History of Plymouth Plantation. Gov. William Brad- 

ford. 

4. King Philip's War, and Witchcraft in New England. 

Gov. Thomas Hutchinson. 

5. Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley. 

John Gilmary Shea. 

6. Champlain and His Associates. Francis Parkman. 

7. Braddoek's Defeat. Francis Parkman. 

8. First Battles of the Revolution. Edward Everett. 

9. Colonial Pioneers. James Pakton. 

10. Heroes of the Revolution. James Parton. 

Other Numbe?'s in P?-efia?'atio?i. 



EFFINGHAM MAYNARD & CO., Publishers, 

771 Broadway and 67 & 69 Ninth Street, 
NEW YORK. 



Copyright, 1890, by Jsffinqham Maynard & Co, 



Life of Governor HuTCHiisrsoisr. 



Thomas Hutchixsox, the last governor of Massachusetts 
under British rule, belonged to a family quite celebrated in 
the history of that colony. His great-great-great-grandmother 
was the Mrs. Anne Hutchinson who, with all her family, was 
banished from Massachusetts on account of her religious opin- 
ions in 1637. Captain Edward Hutchinson, his great-grand- 
father, "was prominent in much business w^ith the Indians, and 
was killed during King Philip's War, August, 1675. His more 
immediate ancestors also played important parts in the public 
life of the colony. Governor Hutchinson was born at Boston in 
the year 1711. At the age of sixteen he graduated from Har- 
vard College, with an excellent reputation as a student. He at 
first engaged in mercantile business, but soon becoming satisfied 
that he was not qualified to succeed in this, he gave it up and 
devoted himself to legal studies. In 1738 he entered political 
life as a member of the board of selectmen in Boston, and from 
that time on he was almost uninterruptedly in public office. 
For ten years he represented Boston in the colonial legislature. 
For sixteen years he served in the governor's council. During 
this later period his talent and his activity were so effectively dis- 
played that other offices of great importance were bestowed 
upon him. At one time he held, in addition to his position as 
councilor, the offices of judge of probate, chief-justice, and 
lieutenant-governor. In all his official life his integrity was 
above suspicion ; but the eagerness which he displayed to secure 
all possible sources of income illustrates a grasping and parsi- 
monious spirit, which manifested itself also in other ways. 



1 



LIFE OF GOVERNOR HUTCHINSON. 



When in 1764 and the following years the question of Eng- 
land's right to tax the colonies began to be discussed, Hutchin- 
son, like many of the wealthier and especially of the office-hold- 
ing classes, took sides with the Parliament. As a lawyer and an 
officer of the crown, he considered that he had good reasons for 
his position, and in opposition to James Otis and Samuel Adams 
he made a sturdy and honest defense of his convictions. But 
with the development of his loyal opinions all the popularity 
which he had long enjoyed vanished as if by magic. To the 
patriots he became the representative of all that they detested 
in royal tyranny. When the Stamp Act was passed, in 1765, 
Hutchinson's brother-in-law, Andrew Oliver, was appointed 
stamp-distributor for Massachusetts. A mob hung Oliver in 
effigy, totally destroyed one building owned by him, wrecked 
the contents of his dwelling, and terrified the poor man into 
resignation. On the rumor that Hutchinson had been instru- 
mental in the passage of the act, the mob, after several minor 
outrages, finally, on August 26, 1765, broke into his house 
and thoroughly ransacked it, demolishing all the furniture, and 
destroying a great amount of valuable historical papers. The 
manuscript of his History of Massachusetts, from which the 
narratives in this book are taken, was scattered about the streets, 
but fortunately was all recovered. 

From this time on the dispute between the English Govern- 
ment and the colonists raged almost without interruption, and 
Hutchinson was the mainstay of the royal cause. In 1769, the 
governor, Bernard, left the colony for England, and two years 
later, Hutchinson, who, as lieutenant-governor, had been at 
the head of affairs in the interval, received his commission as 
governor. The ability and obstinacy with which he contested 
every assault of the patriots upon the king's authority, and the 
rigor with which he applied all available means for enforcing 
the royal ordinances, which to the people seemed so despotic, 
made him the object of the intensest hatred. It was his rigid 
adherence to the strict letter of the law that prevented the tea- 
ships from leaving Boston with their cargoes at the demand of 



LIFE' OF GOVERNOR ilUTCIllXSON. 



5 



the townspeople, and thus led to the famous " Tea-party" in 1773. 
The excitement and disorder that followed this affair practically 
terminated Governor Hutchinson's official career. In view of 
the warlike aspect of the colony, General Gage was sent to as- 
sume control, and Hutchiuson sailed for England on June 1, 
1774. 

He was assured that when the trouble in the colonies should 
be quelled he should be reinstated, in his office. For the best 
of reasons this promise was never fulfilled. In England he was 
treated with great honor and esteem, and enjoyed a pension from 
the crown. He was much consulted by the government as an 
authority on American affairs, but his opinions were often dis- 
torted by his prejudices ; as, for example, when he expressed 
his conviction that the colonists would not fight against British 
forces, and that a few troops would be sufficient to quell them if 
they did resist. The loss of all his property in America reduced 
him to comparative poverty in his later days, which his pension 
did not adequately relieve. He lived in anxious contemplation 
of the course of events in his native land, but died in 1780, be- 
fore the final collapse of the royal cause. 

Governor Hutchinson's literary work, outside of the papers 
which he wrote in his official capacity, was chiefly in connection 
with colonial history and politics. The "History of Massachu- 
setts Bay" was his greatest work. Of its three volumes, the 
first two, bringing the history down to 1750, were published be- 
tween 1760 and 1770. The third volume, completing the work 
up to 1774, did not appear till after his death. The character 
of Thomas Hutchinson, both as a statesman and a historian, 
has generally been underrated in the United States on account 
of his tory politics. At the present time students are inclined 
to do more justice to him in both respects. 



Recent Opixioxs of Governor Hutchixsox axd his 

History. 

" Hutchinson found time to write a history of New England — a work 
digested from the most copious materials, with excellent judgment, and 
presented in a style admirable for dignity, clearness, and scholarly finish." 

Janus K. Hosmer. 

"For intellectual gifts and accomplishments Hutchinson stood far 
above all the other colonial governors. His 1 History of Massachusetts 
Bay' is a work of rare merit, alike for careful research, for philosophic 
acuteness, and for literary charm." — John Fiske. 

'•'The first general ' History of Massachusetts Bay' was written by 
Thomas Hutchinson, afterward governor of the province. The author 
had rich materials for his work, and was judicious in the use of them. 
He had a genius for history, and his work will always stand as of the 
highest authority." — Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America. 

"Our second literary period [16T6-1 765] produced four considerable 
historians, — William Hubbard, Cotton Mather, Thomas Prince, Thomas 
Hutchinson: the first two excelling, in popularity, all other historians of 
the colonial time; the last two excelling all others in specific training for 
the profession of history, and in the conscious accumulation of materials 
for historic work." — Moses Coit Tyler {Hist. Am. Lit.). 



King Philip's War. 



chapter I. 




Map of Massachusetts. 



The war with the Indians commonly called Philip's War en- 
dangered the very being of the colony, and it was a question 
with some whether the Indians would not prevail to a total 



8 



KING PHILIP'S WAP. 



extirpation of the English inhabitants. At the first arrival of 
the English the Indians were treated with kindness, to obtain 
their friendship and favor; but they having no acquaintance 
with fire-arms, the English grew by degrees less apprehensive of 
danger, finding by means of corselets of armor that they were 
not much exposed to danger from bows and arrows of so simple 
construction as those of the Indians. 

The quarrels which the Indians had always been engaged in 
amongst themselves were a further security to the English, who 
on the one hand endeavored to restrain them from open war 
with one another, and on the other to keep up so much conten- 
tion as to prevent a combination, and to make an appeal to the 
English, as umpires, necessary from time to time. The English 
before their arrival had such ideas of the sachems 1 that at the 
first meetings respect was shown them in some proportion to 
what would have been required by the prince of a petty state in 
Europe; but the base sordid minds of the best of them, and 
the little authority they had over their own subjects, soon ren- 
dered them contemptible. 

At Kew Plymouth the governor, in the first treaty with Mas- 
sasoit in 1620, acquainted him that King James considered him 
as his good friend and ally. This was too great an honor for 
Massasoit, who was content to acknowledge the king to be his 
sovereign. The next year the governor caused the petty sachems 
to sign an instrument in which they owned themselves to be 
subject to King James. Subject, however, was a word of which 
they had no precise idea. For nearly forty years together the 
settlers at Plymouth were under no great concern from neigh- 
boring Indians, Massasoit, or Ousamequin/ always courting the 
friendship of the English. 

After his death and the death of his eldest son, ATamsutta, 
or Alexander, 3 Metacom, or Philip, his second son, a man of great 

1 Sachem — the title given by the j the habit of giving Christian names 
Indians to a chief. to the Indians, to take the place of 

2 Ou-sa-me'-quin. the barbarous and unpronounce- 

3 The settlers very early formed | able words of the native language. 



KMG PHILIP'S WAR. 



9 



spirit, by his behavior raised suspicion of a design against the 
English; but appearing before the court in Plymouth in 1662, 
he expressed his desire to continue in friendship, and prom- 
ised that he and his successors would always remain faithful 
subjects to the kings of England, and that he would never 
alienate his lands and never make war with any other Indians, 
without the knowledge and consent of the government of New 
Plymouth. 

The Indians within the Massachusetts bounds 1 were not under 
one general sachem, but were divided into smaller cantons. 



These, one after another, were brought to acknowledge their 
subjection to the Massachusetts government ; particularly in 
1643, when danger was apprehended from the Narragansetts, five 
sachems subjected themselves by a single instrument. 2 Be- 
sides rules and orders which they were encouraged to make for 
their own government, for any offense against the English they 
were punished by the English laws, and so likewise for any capi- 
tal or heinous offense amoug themselves. Notwithstanding the 
laws to restrain all persons from selling guns or ammunition to 
the Indians, they were generally furnished with both, and were 
becoming good marksmen. 

1 Massachusetts bounds — that is, I 2 Instrument — treaty or written 
the colony of Massachusetts Bay, as agreement, 
distinct from that of Plymouth. 




King Philip. 



10 



K1XG PHILIP'S WAR. 



In 1670 the Pokanoket or Philip's Indians were again sus- 
pected, on account of their frequently assembling together, re- 
pairing their guns, grinding their hatchets, and other prepara- 
tions, and on account of insults offered to the English in dif- 
ferent places, to be meditating a general war. The government 
of Plymouth in March sent messengers to the Indians to inquire 
into the reason of this behavior, and at the same time wrote 
to the officials in Massachusetts, acquainting them therewith. 
The governor and magistrates, always averse to an open breach, 
immediately dispatched their own messengers to Taunton, to 
prevent a war if possible, which Plymouth had intimated that 
they should be obliged to begin if they could not otherwise bring 
the Indians to reason. 

They came to Taunton the 13th of April, where the governor 
and two other Plymouth gentlemen met them, and whilst they 
were in conference and examining witnesses concerning the 
behavior of the Indians, a message was received from Philip, 
signifying that he was at Three Mile Eiver. and that he desired 
the governor to come thitherto speak with him. The governor 
returned answer that he was at Taunton ready for a treaty, and 
expected Philip to come to him, promising security. 

Philip refused to move until two of the governor's messengers 
offered to remain as hostages, and then he declined coming into 
the town and resolved to go only as far as the mill, with all his 
men in arms, desiring the governor to come to him there. This 
return was made to the governor, with the further intelligence 
that Philip was on the march with all his men in arms. He soon 
appeared at the mill, and placed sentinels round a hill near to it, 
but sent no message into the town. Some within the town were 
for attacking him, but the Massachusetts commissioners were 
afraid of the event, 1 and would not consent to it. All agreed, 
however, that the governor should not condescend to go out to 
him. 

At length the Massachusetts commissioners offered to go out 



The event— that is, the result, if a battle occurred. 



KING PHILIPS WAR 



11 



and try to persuade him to come in. At first he was unwilling, 
and his counselors declared he should not go ; but finally he con- 
sented, provided his men might go with him, they to be on one 
side of the meeting-house, and the English on the other. Philip 
denied that he had any further purpose in bringing his men to- 
gether and arming them than to defend himself from any at- 
tacks which might be made by the Xarragansett Indians, some 
of whom had been engaged in quarrels with some of his people. 

Upon inquiry, however, it appeared that he was on better 
terms with the Xarragansetts than ever before ; and plentiful 
evidence being produced of his preparations both of ammunition 
and provisions, and of parties of his men being destined for 
the attack of Taunton, 1 Seaconk, and other places, he was con- 
founded, and made a full confession. 

Thereupon the commissioners required of him satisfaction for 
past damages and security against further injuries. The first 
was not long insisted on, but with respect to the latter he was 
prevailed on to deliver up what English arms he then had with 
him, being about seventy guns, and to promise to send in the re- 
mainder in a few days. A writing was also drawn up, which he 
consented to sign, acknowledging his past breach of faith and 
promising future fidelity. 

The loss of so many guns must have been grievous to Philip 
at a time when he only waited a good opportunity of falling upon 
the English. His submitting to the acknowledgment in writing 
was of no consequence. The Indians, in general, will promise 
anything required of them to remove an impending danger or 
to procure an immediate benefit; and they regard such promises 
not a minute longer than it is for their advantage to do it. 
When Philip was at liberty he thought no more of his engage- 
ments. The guns were not brought in, and he himself refused 
to come to Plymouth when required. Many strange Indians, 
moreover, resorted to him. 

On the 23d of August, Mr. Morton, secretary, in the name of 



Point out this place on the map. 



12 



K1XG PHIL IF S WAR. 



the court of Plymouth, wrote to the Massachusetts governor a 
note, to be communicated to the council, 1 acquainting him that 
they had summoned Philip to appear on the 13th of September, 
and that if he did not do it, they had determined on the 20th to 
send out forces to reduce him to submission, unless better 
reason should seasonably appear to them, through the advice of 
Massachusetts, to prevent it. The suppression of Philip, the 
note said, was a common cause, and they should well accept of 
assistance; but it was plainly intimated that if aid should be 
refused they would engage alone. 

Philip happened to come to Boston with his counselors the 
same day the letter was received, and he represented his case so 
favorably to the governor and council, that, in their answer to 
Plymouth, they urged that government to refer the difference 
between Philip and them to commissioners from Massachusetts 
and Connecticut. Plymouth declined this proposal and insisted 
on Philip's appearance at the time proposed, but finally Massa- 
chusetts convinced them that there did not appear sufficient 
grounds for commencing hostilities. Plymouth consented to 
give Philip further time — until the 26th, promised him safe-con- 
duct, and desired commissioners from Massachusetts and Con- 
necticut to be present and to give advice. Whilst Philip was at 
Boston he engaged that he would not enter into a quarrel with 
Plymouth until he had first addressed himself to Massachusetts 
for advice and approbation. 

The mediators 2 met at Plymouth, and matters seemed to be 
accommodated. Philip signed such articles as it was thought 
reasonable he should do, and which were as follows: 

" 1st. We. Philip 3 and my Council, and my subjects, do acknowledge 



3 The council — a body of men 
chosen to assist the Governor in his 
duties by their advice. 

2 11 The mediators " — that is, the 
men appointed by Massachusetts 
and Connecticut, who were to act 



I as judges upon the charges brought 
against Philip by Plymouth. 

3 "We. Philip." etc. It is usual 

! for kings and other rulers in civ- 
ilized lands to use the plural num 
ber in referring: to themselves in 



KING PHILIP'S WAP. 



13 



ourselves subject to his Majesty the King of England and the Govern- 
ment of New Plymouth, and to their laws, 

"2d. I am willing and do promise to pay unto the Government of 
Plymouth one hundred pounds, in such things as I have ; but I would 
entreat the favor that I might have three years to pay it in, forasmuch as 
I cannot do it at present. 

" 3d. I do promise to send unto the Governor, or whom he shall ap- 
point, five wolves' heads, if I can get them, or as many as I can procure, 
until they come to five wolves yearly. 

"4th. If any difference fall between the English and myself and peo- 
ple, then I do promise to repair to the Governor of Plymouth to rectify 
the difference amongst us. 

i( 5th. I do promise not to make war with any but with the Governor's 
approbation of Plymouth. 1 

" 6th. I promise not to dispose of any of the lands that I have at pres- 
ent but by the approbation of the Governor of Plymouth. 

" For the true performance of the promises. I the said Sachem, Philip 
of Pawkamuket,' 2 do hereby bind myself and such of rny Council as are 
present, ourselves, our heirs, our successors faithfully." 

The English have been charged by some writers with acts of 
injustice to the Indians, which have provoked them and oc- 
casioned the frequent wars. There have been many instances 
of abuses offered to particular persons among the Indians by 
evil-minded Englishmen, and the inhabitants of some parts of 
the province which have suffered most by Indian cruelties have 
been under too strong prejudices, on account of which many 
offenders 3 when brought upon trial have been acquitted by too 
favorable juries. We are too apt to consider the Indians as a 



formal treaties. The commission- 
ers by whom these articles were 
written thought it necessary to fol- 
low this custom, though Philip, 
whom the\' thus chose to regard 
as a king, was in fact only a savage, 
with no understanding of the mean- 
ing of the custom. Not being able 
to write, he signed this treaty by 
means of a rude scrawl, by the side 
of which one of the colonists wrote, 



"Philip's mark." His counselors 
signed in the same way." 

1 Might this fifth article have been 
written in more correct English ? 

2 Pawkamuket— the same as Po- 
kanoket. Indian names are often 
spelled in different ways by dif- 
ferent writers. Why? 

3 Offenders— refers here to white 
men brought to trial for injuring 
Indians, 



14 



KING PHIL IF S WAP. 



race of beings by nature inferior to us. and bcrn to servitude. 
Philip was a man of high spirit, and could not bear to see the 
English of Xew Plymouth extending their settlements over the 
dominions of his ancestors ; and although his father 1 had, at 
one time or other, conveyed to the whites all that they were 
possessed of, yet he had sense enough to distinguish a free, volun- 
tary covenant from one made under a sort of duress, 2 and he 
could never rest until he brought on the war which ended in 
his destruction. The eastern wars 3 have been caused by the 
attachment of those Indians to the French, who have taken all 
opportunities of exciting them to hostilities against the English. 

Give the meaning of the following words: 

Extirpation Confounded Servitude 

Contemptible Fidelity Covenant 

Alienate Hostilities Distraction 

Heinous Approbation Corselet 

Hostages Rectify 



CHAPTER II. 

From 1671 to 1671 we meet with no transaction of moment 
relative to the Indians, but it is affirmed that Philip was all this 
time using measures to engage the Indians in all parts of Xew 
England to unite against the English. The Indians about Had- 
ley confessed such a plot. The Xarragansetts had engaged to 
bring four thousand men; but this could not be done immedi- 
ately, as the English were upon the watch. Some fire-arms had 
been taken from the Indians. To provide sufficient arms, ammu- 



1 Who was Philip's father ? See 
page 8. 

2 Covenant made under duress — 

a promise, gift, or sale, which is 
made not because a person really 
wishes to make it, but because he 



fears some harm to himself if he 
does not. 

3 Eastern wars — conflicts with 
the Indians about the settlements 
along the coast in the northeastern 
part of Massachusetts, and in Xew 
Hampshire and Maine. 



KING PHILIP'S WAR. 



15 



nition and provisions while under suspicion was a work of time. 
They did not expect to be prepared before the spring of 16T6, 
but Philip precipitated his own nation and his allies into a war 
before they were prepared. This was evident from the distrac- 
tion of the Indians in all parts of Xew England upon the first 
news of the disturbance from Philip. 

They were amazed, not knowing which way to turn — some- 
times ready to declare for the 1 English, as they had been used to 
do in the former contests with Philip; at other times inclining to 
join with Philip, as first or last most of them did. The war was 
hurried on by a piece of revenge which Philip caused to be taken 
upon John Sausaman, a praying Indian. 1 He had been bred 
up in the profession of the Christian religion, was some time at 
the college, and afterwards was employed as a schoolmaster 
at Xatick, but upon some misdemeanor fled to Philip, who 
made him his secretary and chief counselor and confidant. 2 
After he had remained some years with Philip, Mr. Eliot, 3 the 
Indian evangelist, who had been his spiritual father, pre- 
vailed with him to return to the Christian Indians at Xatick, 
where he manifested public repentance for his apostasy, became 
a preacher, and conformed more to the English manners than 
any other Indian. 

In the year 1674 Sausaman upon some occasion went to 
Xamasket (Middleborough), where he fell into company with 
some of Philip's Indians and with Philip himself. There he 
discovered by several circumstances that the Indians were plot- 
ting against the English. He informed the governor what he 
had discovered, and told him that if he should be known to be 
the informer it would cost him his life. It was not long after that 
Sausaman was met by three or four Indians upon a frozen pond. 
They knocked him down and put him under the ice, leaving his 

1 Praying Indian— the term ap- | 2 Confidant. What part of speech ? 



plied to savages who had been 
converted to Christianity by the 
missionaries from the settlements, 



In what other way may it be 
spelled ? 



3 What famous literary work did 
Eliot accomplish ? 



16 



KING PHILIP'S WAP. 



gun and hat upon the ice, to make the world believe that he ac- 
cidentally fell in and was drowned. 

When the body was found and taken up the wounds appeared 
upon his head. An Indian who happened to be upon a hill at 




a distance saw the murder committed. He concealed it for 
some time but at length discovered 1 it. The murderers were 
apprehended, tried upon the Indian's testimony and other circum- 
stances, convicted, and executed. Two of them denied the fact 



1 Discovered. In what meaning used here ? Is this the most common 

meaning ? 



KIXG PHILIP'S WAR 



11 



to the last ; the third, when he came to die, confessed that he 
was a spectator of the murder committed by the other two. 
This trial was at Plymouth in June, 1675. 

Philip, enraged to see the immediate actors brought to punish- 
ment by the English laws, and expecting tha. it would be his own 
turn next, being conscious that the murderers were employed 
by him, took no pains to exculpate himself, but gathered what 
strangers he could, and together with his own men marched 
them up and down the country in arms. 

The English of Plymouth ordered a military watch in every 
town, but took no other notice of the Indians' behavior, hoping 
that when Philip saw no measures were used for apprehending 
him, the threatened storm would blow over, as it had done 
several times before. But the Indians coming to him from 
several quarters gave him fresh courage, and he behaved with 
insolence, first threatening the English at Swanzey, 1 then kill- 
ing some of their cattle, and at length rifling their houses. An 
Englishman was so provoked, that he tired upon an Indian and 
wounded him. June 24th, in the morning, one of the inhabitants 
of Eehoboth was tired upon by a party of Indians, and the hilt 
of his sword shot off. The same day in the afternoon, being a 
fast, as Swanzey people were coming from* public worship, the 
Indians attacked them, killing one and wounding others, and 
killed two men who were going for a surgeon. Afterward they 
beset a house in another part of the town, and there murdered 
six more. 

Massachusetts before this had determined to raise one hun- 
dred men for the assistance of Plymouth. Before they marched 
it was thought best to send messengers to Philip at Mount Hope, 
to divert him from his design, if possible. But the messengers, 
seeing some of the Swanzey men lying murdered in the road, did 
not think it safe to go any farther and returned as fast as they 
could with this intelligence to Boston. On the 26th, a foot 



1 Was Swanzey in Plymouth or in Massachusetts? Where was Reho. 
both ? See map, p. 7. 



18 



KIXG PHILIP'S WAR. 



company under Captain Henchman and a troop 1 under Captain 
Prentice marched from Boston toward Mount Hope. They were 
overtaken by another company of one hundred and ten volun- 
teers under Captain Mosely, and all arrived at Swanzey the 28th, 
where they found Plymouth forces under Captain Cudworth. 
They made the house of the minister, Mr. Miles, near the bridge, 
their head-quarters. 

About a dozen of the troop went immediately over the bridge, 
where they were fired upon from out of the bushes and had one 
man killed and one wounded. This action drew the body of the 
English forces after the enemy, whom they pursued a mile or 
two, until the Indians took to a swamp, with the loss of about a 
dozen men. Philip now thought it best to quit his station at 
Mount Hope. A day or two after, Major Savage having arrived 
with more forces from Boston and having assumed general 
command, the troops marched into the Indian towns. These 
they found deserted, with marks of great haste. Philip's wigwam 
was discovered amongst the rest. Xot having met with any of 
the enemy, the next day they returned to their head-quarters at 
Swanzey. 

The Massachusetts government sent Captain Hutchinson as 
their commissioner to treat with the Narragan setts. It was 
thought convenient to do it sword in hand, and therefore all the 
forces marched into the Narragansett country* Connecticut sent 
two gentlemen in behalf of that government, and on the 15th of 
July they came to an agreement with the Xarragansett Indians. 
This tribe favored Philip in their hearts and w r aited only a con- 
venient opportunity to declare openly for him; but whilst the 
army was in their country they were obliged to submit to the 
terms imposed upon them. As soon as the treaty was finished, 
the forces left the Narragansett country and came to Taunton 
the 17th, in the evening. 

Hearing that Philip was in a swamp at Pocasset, the Massa- 
chusetts and Plymouth forces joined, and arrived at the swamp 



1 A troop— a body of horsemen. 



K1XG PHILIP'S WAR 



19 



the 18th, which they resolutely entered. They found about 
one hundred wigwams empty. The enemy had deserted them 
and retired deeper into the swamp. The English followed, but 
in the disorder which was inevitable when penetrating a thick 
swamp. A desultory engagement ensued. The soldiers found they 
were in danger one from another, every man firing at every bush 
he saw shake. Night coming on, it was necessary to retreat, and it 
was found that they had lost fifteen men. How many they 
killed of the enemy is uncertain. It was an unsuccessful attempt, 
and the more unfortunate because, as they were afterwards 
informed, Philip was in such distress that if they had followed 
him half an hour longer he would have surrendered himself and 
his men, which would have put an end to the war. 

This disappointment encouraged the Indians in other parts 
of Xew England to follow Philip's example and begin their 
hostilities against the English. Some few had begun before. 
The Xipnet or Xipmuck Indians had killed four or five people 
at Mendon. in the Massachusetts colony, the 14th of July. The 
governor and council, in hopes of reclaiming the Xipnets, sent 
Captain Hutchinson 1 with twenty horsemen to Quabaog (Brook- 
field), near which place there was to be a great rendezvous of 
these Indians. The inhabitants of Quabaog had been deluded 
with the promise of a treaty, at a place agreed upon for the 2d 
of August. Some of the principal of them accompanied Captain 
Hutchinson thither. Xot finding the Indians there, they rode 
forward four or five miles towards the Xipnets' chief town. When 
they came to a place called Meminimisset, a narrow passage be- 
tween a steep hill and a thick swamp, they were ambushed by two 
or three hundred Indians, who shot down eight of the company 
and mortally wounded three more, Captain Hutchinson being 
one of the number. The rest escaped through a by-path to 
Quabaog. 

The Indians flocked into the town, but the inhabitants being 



1 This Captain Hutchinson was the great-grandfather of the author of 
the history from which this account is taken. See p. 3. 



20 



KIXG PHILIP'S WAP. 



alarmed, had all gathered together in the principal house. They 
had the mortification to see their dwelling-houses, about twenty, 
with their barns and outhouses, burnt. The house where they 
had assembled was then surrounded and a variety of attempts 
were made to set fire to it. At length the Indians filled a cart 
with hemp and other combustible matter, which they kindled, 
and whilst they were thrusting it towards the house a violent 
shower of rain fell suddenly and extinguished the fire. 

August 4th, Major AVillard, who had been sent after some 
other Indians westward, heard of the distress of Brookfield when 
he was about four or five miles from Lancaster, which caused 
him with his forty-eight men to alter his course, and the same 
night he reached Brookfield, after thirty miles' march. Though 
the Indian scouts discovered him and fired their alarm-guns, vet 
the main body, from their high joy, always accompanied with a 
horrid noise, heard nothing of them. Willard joined the besieged, 
and the Indians, pouring in all the shot they could, but without 
execution, then quitted the siege, destroyed all the horses and 
cattle they could find, and withdrew to their dens. They were 
not pursued, being superior in numbers. The English, moreover, 
were not yet used to Indian fighting. A party sent from Spring- 
field to the relief of Brookfield, finding it effected, returned, 
meeting none of the enemy. 

Philip and his people continued in the swamp at Pocasset 
until the last of July. After a skirmish with Captain Church 
and other parties, they escaped from the swamp, notwithstand- 
ing the Massaehu setts forces kept their guards round it, and 
went away to the westward without being very closely pursued. 
The 5th of August, Philip with about forty men, besides women 
and children, joined the Nipmuck Indians in a swamp ten or 
twelve miles from Brookfield. 

The Indians upon the Connecticut Biver, near Hadley, Hat- 
field, and Deerfield, began their hostilities about the same time, as 
also did those at Penicook and other places upon the Merrimac 
Eiver, so that before the end of August the whole Massachusetts 
colony was in the utmost terror. Philip having left Plymouth, 



K1XG PHILIPS WAP. 



21 



and the Narragansetts not having engaged, that colony was less 
affected. There were several skirmishes about Hatfield: viz., at 
Sugar-loaf Hill, at Deerfield, and at Squakeag (JSTorthfiekl), about 
the latter end of August and the beginning of September, in 
which the English, upon the whole, were losers. September 1st, 
Hadley was attacked upon a fast-day, while the people were at 
church, which broke up the service and obliged them to spend 
the day in very different exercise. 1 The commanders in that part 
of the country, not being able to do much service by sending out 
parties, determined to garrison the towns and to collect a maga- 
zine of provisions at Hadley. 

There being about 3000 bushels of corn at Deerfield in stacks, 
Captain Lothrop with eighty men was sent to guard it down in 
carts. The expedition was set upon by seven or eight hundred 
Indians, and all the English but seven or eight were cut off. 
Captain Lothrop and his men fought bravely, but in the Indian 
manner, betaking themselves to trees, which in so great a dis- 
proportion of numbers must be inevitable destruction, for many 
of the lesser party must be unguarded and exposed. Captain 
Moseley, who was quartered at Deerfield, came out with his com- 
pany too late to rescue Lothrop, but keeping his men together 
in a body, fought the whole number of Indians for several hours 
with the loss of two men only, until Major Treat w T ith about 160 



1 "On Sept, 23, about 10 a.m., 
an, alarm was made in the town of 
Boston. Twelve hundred men were 
in arms before eleven, and all dis- 
missed before twelve. One that 
was on guard at Mendon, thirty 
miles off, got drunk and fired his 
gun, the noise of which alarmed 
the next neighbors, and soon spread 
to Boston." — Extract from a letter 
from Massachusetts to London. 

The fear and uneasiness at Bos- 
ton was very great all through this 
winter. Even those Indians in the 



neighborhood who had been most 
faithful and devoted to the Eng- 
lish were now distrusted. A great 
many of them were forced to spend 
the winter under guard, and with 
scant allowance of food and shelter, 
on an island in Boston Harbor. 
Some of the English favored put- 
ting all of these to death, merely 
to make certain of safety against 
them. Xo Indian was allowed in 
Boston unless under guard of two 
musketeers, and under no circum- 
stances could one stay over night. 



22 



KING PHILIP'S WAP. 



Mohegan Indians came to his aid and put the enemy to flight. 
This battle was a heavy stroke to the county of Essex, to which 
most of Captain Lothrop's company, being young men, be- 
longed. 1 

A body of Indians who had a fort about a mile from Spring- 
field had hitherto professed great friendship to the English, but 
Philip's Indians prevailed with them to join in a plot for the 
destruction of the town, and to receive in the night three hun- 
dred of these Indians into the fort. The plan was discovered 
the night before by Top, a Windsor Indian, which fact, although 
it saved the lives of many of the inhabitants, yet was no security 
for their dwellings; thirty odd houses, besides barns, etc., being 
burnt before forces came from Westfield, Hadley, and other 
parts, to repel the Indians. 

The 19th of October they came with all the force and fury 
they could raise upon Hatfield, but were repulsed, the Connec- 
ticut and Massachusetts forces being, by good providence, at 
hand so as to prevent any great loss. This discouraged them 
from continuing any longer in that part of the country, and they 
withdrew to the Xarragansetts, their general rendezvous. Some 
stragglers remained until the end of Xovember, and a few lurked 
in the swamps all winter, doing now and then some mischief — 
enough to keep the inhabitants upon constant watch and guard. 

Give the meaning of the following ?rord*: 

Misdemeauor Exculpate Combustible 

Evangelist Spectator Inevitable 

Repentance Insolence Rendezvous 

Apostasy Intelligence Ambushed 

Apprehended Convenient Mortification 

Resolutely 



1 Where is Essex County in Massachusetts? 



KL\G PHILIPS WAP. 



23 



CHAPTER III. 

The NarragansettSj contrary to their engagements, had re- 
ceived and comforted Philip's Indians and other enemies of the 
English. It was not doubted that some of that nation had mixed 
with the others in their hostilities. If they should all openly 
engage in the spring, there would be no resisting them; for, 
scattered in every part of the country, all the forces the English 
could raise would not be a match for them. One company of 
soldiers after another had wasted away in the year past. There 
was no great room to hope for better success in the year to come. 

The commissioners of the united colonies therefore agreed to 
raise one thousand men, to march in the winter into the Xarra- 
gansett country. Massachusetts was to raise 527, the other two 
colonies the remainder. Mr. Winslow, the governor of Plymouth, 
was pitched upon for the general. The 8th of December the 
Massachusetts forces marched from Boston and were soon joined 
by Plymouth men. Connecticut men joined them on the 18th at 
Pettyquamscot. The evening and night were stormy and the 
men had no covering. 1 At break of day, the 19th, they began 
a march of fourteen or fifteen miles through the snow, and at 
one o'clock in the afternoon they came to the edge of the swamp 
where the enemy lay. They had met with an Indian who was 
disgusted with the rest, and who offered himself as a pilot. 

The Indians knew of the armament coming against them and 
had fortified themselves with all the art and strength they were 
capable of. The English fell in suddenly and unexpectedly 
upon this seat of the enemy, and neither drew up in any order 
of battle nor consulted where or how to assault. Some Indians 
appearing at the edge of the swamp, they that were in front of 
the army in the march fired upon them. The Indians returned 
the fire and fled. 



' Covering— tents or other shelter from the storm. 



24 



KIXG PHILIPS WAR. 



The whole army entered the swamp, following the Indians to 
their fortress, which was upon a piece of upland in the midst of 
the swamp, palisaded all round, and further surrounded by a 
hedge of near a rod thick. At one corner only was a gap the 
length of one log, where the breastwork was not above four or 
five feet high, but they had placed a blockhouse over against 
this passage. At this passage and nowhere else the English 
must enter. As it pleased God to order it, they fell in upon 
that part of the fort where the passage was. The captains en- 
tered at the head of their companies. The two first, Johnson 
and Davenport, were shot dead at the entrance, as were many of 
their men. Four other captains, Gardner, Gallop, Siely, and 
Marshall, also lost their lives. 

As soon as the forces were entered they attacked the Indians 
in their places of shelter, who fought desperately and beat the 
English out of the fort. After two or three hours, however, the 
advantage of the English was such that they began to fire the 
wigwams, which were five or six hundred in number. In many 
of these the Indian women and children perished. The men 
who were left alive fled into a cedar forest at some small distance, 
without any necessaries of life or any shelter from the cold and 
storms, except the boughs of trees. 

The day being near spent, the English thought it high time to 
retire to their quarters fifteen or sixteen miles distant, carrying 
dead as well as wounded men with them. Many of the wounded 
men perished by being exposed to this long march in a cold 
night, who might otherwise have been saved. The number of 
killed and wounded amounted to one hundred and seventy. 
Some of the enemy confessed they lost seven hundred fighting 
men that day, besides three hundred more who died of their 
wounds and the hardships to which they were exposed. The 
number of old men, women, and children which perished by the 
fire, cold, and famine they could not tell. 

The Indians took possession of the fort again the next day, 
but the English made no further attack. They were scant of 
provisions, and the weather being extremely cold, delayed the 



R1XG PHILIP'S WAM. 



25 



vessels which had their supplies on board. Some weeks were spent 
doing nothing. February 5th, the army returned to Boston. 
There was a remarkable thaw in January, which melted the snow 
and opened the earth, so that the Indians could come at the ground- 
nuts, which seem to have been all their provisions. Some from 
among themselves reported that corn was sold at two shillings 
the pint. 

They took the first opportunity to leave the Xarragansetts' 
country. A general junction of the Indians was thereupon ex- 
pected, and every part of the English colonies was in terror. 
The 10th of February, several hundred of the enemy assaulted 
Lancaster, burnt the houses, and killed and captured forty per- 
sons, the minister's wife and children among the rest, he himself 
(Mr. Rowlandson) being absent. Mischief was done about the 
same time at Marlborough, Sudbury, and Chelmsford. The 21st, 
they fell upon Medfield, where there were two or three hundred 
soldiers, and yet they burned half the town down and killed 
eighteen of the inhabitants. The 25th, they burned seven or 
eight houses at Weymouth. This seems to be their nearest ap- 
proach to Boston, between fifteen and twenty miles distant; at 
least they did no mischief nearer. 

March was a troublesome month, the Indians attacking Xorth- 
hampton and Springfield upon the Connecticut River, Groton, 
Sudbury, and Marlborough in Massachusetts, Warwick and Provi- 
dence in Ehode Island Colony, burning houses and barns, and 
destroying the cattle and many of the inhabitants. They killed 
also eleven persons of one family in Plymouth (Mr. Clark's), and 
on the 26th of March, Captain Pierce, of Scituate in that colony, 
with fifty English and twenty Indians of Cape Cod, being drawn 
into an ambushment by a small number of the enemy, found 
themselves surrounded by a great body of Indians, who killed 
every Englishman and a great part of the friendly Indians. 

The 28th, they burned forty houses, besides barns, at Eeho- 
both. Where Philip spent the winter 1 was never certainly known. 



1 What winter is here referred to ? 



26 



Kim PHILIPS WAS. 



Some conjectured that lie went to the Mohawks; 1 others that he 
went to Canada, which his friends said was his intention in the 
fall. Knowing the premium set upon his head, he disguised 
and. concealed himself, so that we hear but little of him until he 
was killed. His affairs were now at the highest flow, and those 
of the English at never so low an ebb. 

But presently after, a sudden turn came on. The beginning of 
April, the Connecticut men, under George Denison of Stoning- 
ton, with some friendly Indians, killed or took prisoners forty- 
four of the enemy; and before the end of the month, the same 
commanders, with sixty-six English volunteers and one hundred 
and twelve Pequod Indians, 2 took or slew seventy-six more of the 
enemy, without the loss of one man in either of these exploits. 
Between these two successful actions happened a very unfortu- 
nate one for Massachusetts. Ajnil 20th, news came to Boston 
of the loss of Captain Wadsworth and fifty of his men, while go- 
ing to relieve Sudbury, which had been attacked by the enemy. 

In May and June the enemy appeared in various parts of the 
colonies; but their vigor abated, their distress for want of provi- 
sions and ammunition increased, and at the same time the Mo- 
hawks fell upon them and killed fifty of them. It was commonly 
said that Philip fell upon a party of Mohawks and killed them, 
and reported that they were killed by the English, expecting by 
this means to engage that nation in the war; but one that was 
left for dead revived, escaped to his countrymen, and informed 
them that not the English, but Philip and his Indians, had been 
the murderers. This brought that revenge upon the guilty 
w T hich without this discovery would have been taken of those 
who were innocent. 

In the beginning of July the Connecticut forces met with a 
party of Indians in the isarragansett country, pursued them into 
a swamp and killed and took eighty of them, without any loss 



1 Who were the Mohawks? Where 
did the}" live ? 

2 What had been the earlier rela- 
tions between the Pequods and 



the English ? Had they always 
fought on the same side with each 
other ? 



KIXG PHILIPS WAR. 



except one or two friendly Indians. In their march back sixty 
more of the enemy fell into their hands. The Massachusetts 
and Plymouth men in several parts of the country were like- 
wise very successful from time to time, killing and taking small 
parties of Indians scattered about the country, and no com- 
mander was more fortunate than Captain, afterwards Colonel, 
Church of Plymouth Colony; he has published an account of his 
exploits. 

But Philip was the object of all the expeditions. Upon his 
life or death war or peace depended. News was brought that 
after a year's absence he had returned to Mount Hope, 1 his old 
quarters, and that grea£ numbers of Indians were flocking to 
him, with intent to fall upon the neighboring towns. Massachu- 
setts and Plymouth both ordered their forces after Philip. The 
former returned to Boston, having missed the chief; but they 
killed and took one hundred and fifty of the enemy, who were 
now so reduced that they were continually coming in and sur- 
rendering themselves upon promise of mercy. Two hundred in 
one week came into Plymouth. 

Philip fled from one swamp to another, divers 2 times having 
very narrow escapes, and losing one chief counselor after an- 
other; his uncle and sister, and at last his wife and son, were 
taken prisoners. Being reduced to this miserable condition, he 
was killed the 12th of August as he was flying from a party un- 
der Captain Church out of a swamp near Mount Hope. One of 
his own men, whom he had offended, and who had deserted to 
the English, shot him through the heart. Instead of taking his 
scalp, the slayer cut off Philip's right hand, which had a remark- 
able scar, well known to the English, and it produced a hand- 
some penny/ many having the curiosity to see it. 

This was a finishing stroke, the parties of Indians that re- 
mained being driven from one hole or swamp to another, so that 



1 Point out on the map. In what I Meaning ? 

colony was it. J 3 A handsome penny — a large sum 

2 Divers. What part of speech? | of money. 



28 



KP\G PHILIP'S WAP. 



before winter they were almost all killed, captured, or forced to 
surrender themselves. Some few were supposed to have fled to 
the French, and others to nations of foreign Indians. The 
cruelties which had been exercised upon the English were urged 
in excuse for the treatment which the Indians received who 
were made prisoners or surrendered themselves. 

In all promises of mercy those who had been principal actors 
in any murders of the English were excepted, and none had any 
promise made of anything more than their lives. A great many, 
therefore, of the chiefs were executed at Boston and Plymouth, 
and most of the rest were sold and shipped off for slaves to Ber- 
mudas and other parts. Every person almost in the two colo- 
nies had lost a relative or near friend, and the people were exas- 
perated; but all does not sufficiently excuse this great severity. 

Give the meaning of the following words: 

Armament Innocent 
Conjectured Vigor 



Witchcraft ix New England. 



chapter i. 

The great noise 1 which the New England witchcrafts made 
throughout the English dominions proceeded more from the 
general panic with which all sorts of persons were seized and an 
expectation that the contagion would spread to all parts of the 
country, than from the number of persons who were executed, 
more having been put to death in a single county in England,' 2 
in a short space of time, than have suffered in all Xew England 
from the first settlement until the present time. 3 Fifteen years 
had passed before we find any mention of witchcraft among the 
English colonists. The Indians were supposed to be worshipers 
of the devil, and their powwows 4 to be wizards. 5 

The first suspicion of witchcraft among the English was 
about the year 1645: at Springfield, upon the Connecticut River, 



1 Noise — excitement ; discussion. 

2 The systematic persecution of 
witches, under the authority of the 
Church, began a little before 1500. 
In France and GermaDy thousands 
of witches were burned in the first 
quarter of the sixteenth century, 
and the craze continued through- 
out the whole of it. In England 
the worst period of witch-hunting 
was between 1640 and 1660. Over 
three thousand persons were put to 



death for witchcraft during this 
time. 

3 The present time. This was 
written about 1750. 

4 Powwow— a priest or magician 
among the Indians. 

5 Wizard. Strict meaning, a icise 
(wiz) man; i.e., one who knows much 
that others do not, especially the 
tricks of magie or sorcery. Sup- 
posed to get his knowledge from 
the devil. 



30 



WFTCHCBAFT IN XEW EXGLAXD. 



several persons were supposed to be under an evil hand/ and 
among the rest two of the minister's children. Great pains were 
taken to prove the facts upon several persons charged with the 
crime. But either the nature of the evidence was not satisfactory 
or the fraud was suspected, and so no person was convicted until 
the year 1650. Then a poor wretch. Mary Oliver, probably weary 
of her life from the general reputation of being a witch, after 
long examination was brought to confession of her guilt; but I 
do not find that she was executed. 

Whilst this inquiry was making, Margaret Jones was executed 
at Charlestown ; and Mr. Hale mentions a woman at Dorchester, 
and another at Cambridge about the same time, who all at their 
death asserted their innocence. Soon after, Hugh Parsons was 
tried at Springfield, and escaped death. In 1655 Mrs. Hibbins, 
the assistant's 2 widow, was hanged at Boston. 

In 1662, at Hartford, 3 in Connecticut (about thirty miles from 
Springfield, upon the same river), one Ann Cole, a young woman 
who lived next door to a Dutch family, and who no doubt had 
learned something of the language, was supposed to be possessed 
with demons, who sometimes spoke Dutch 4 and sometimes Eng- 
lish, and sometimes a language which nobody understood, and 
who held a conference with one another. Several ministers who 
were present took down the conference in writing, and the names 



1 Under an evil hand— under the 
power of some witch. To bewitch 
a person was to bring some pain 
or distress upon him through secret 
processes, which were taught to 
the witch by the devil. This was ; 
a crime under English law in the 
seventeenth century and was pun- 
ishable with death. 

- Assistant — a member of the 
upper house in the General Court or 
legislature of Massachusetts. 

z From the fact that the author 
takes such pains to explain where 



Hartford was, what do you think 
i must have been the size and impor- 
tance of the town when this was 
written ? 

4 The young woman, of course, 
did the talking, but sometimes in 
one language and sometimes in an- 
other. The hearers supposed that 
the demons in turn made her speak 
as she did. It seems strange that they 
thought ordinarily shrewd demons 
would talk with one another when 
their enemies were listening. 



WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND. 



31 



of several persons mentioned in the course of the conference as 
actors or bearing parts in it ; particularly a woman, then in prison 
upon suspicion of witchcraft, one Greensmith, who upon examin- 
ation confessed and appeared to be surprised at the discovery. 
She owned that she and others named had been familiar with a 
demon, and although she had not made a formal covenant, yet 
she had promised to be ready at his call, and was to have a high 
frolic at Christmas, when the agreement was to have been signed. 
Upon this confession she was executed, and two more of the 
company were condemned at the same time. 

In 1669 Susanna Martin of Salisbury was bound over to court 1 
upon suspicion of witchcraft, but escaped at that time. 

In 1671 Elizabeth Knap, another wrttrUoqua? alarmed the 
people of Groton 3 in much the same manner as Ann Cole had 
done those at Hartford; but her demon was not so cunning, for 
instead of confining himself to old women, he railed at 4 the good 
minister of the town and other persons of good character, and 
the people could not be prevailed on to believe him. But they 
rather believed the girl when she confessed she had been deluded, 
and that the devil had tormented her in the shape of good persons; 
and so she escaped the punishment due to her fraud and im- 
posture. 

In 1673 Eunice Cole of Hampton was tried, and the jury 
found her not legally guilty, but that there were strong grounds 
to suspect her of familiarity with the devil. 

In 1679 William Morse's house at Newbury 5 was troubled with 
the throwing of bricks, stones, etc., and a boy of .the family was 
supposed to be bewitched, who accused one of the neighbors; and 
in 1682 the house of George Walton, a Quaker, at Portsmouth 
and another house at Salmon Falls (both in New Hampshire) 
were attacked in the same manner. 

1 Bound over to court — compelled ! 3 Groton — a town in Massa- 
to be ready for trial at a certain chussets. See map. 

time. 4 Railed at. Meaning? 

2 Ventriloqua — a female veptrilo- ; 5 Newbury. Where situated? 
quist 



32 



WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND. 



In 1683 the demons removed to Connecticut River again, where 
one Desborough's house was molested by an invisible hand, and 
a fire kindled, nobody knew how, which burnt up a great part 
of his estate; and in 1684 Philip Smith, a judge of the court, a 
military officer, and a representative of the town of Hadley, upon 
the same river (an hypochondriac person), fancied himself under 
an evil hand and suspected a woman, one of his neighbors. He 
languished and pined away, and was generally supposed to have 
been bewitched to death. While he lay ill a number of brisk 
lads tried an experiment upon the old woman. Having dragged 
her out of her house, they hung her up until she was near dead, 
let her down, rolled her some time in the snow, and at last buried 
her in it, and there left her; but it happened that she survived, 
and the melancholy man died. 

Notwithstanding these frequent instances of supposed witch- 
crafts, no person had suffered for near thirty years in the Massa- 
chusetts colony. The execution of the assistant's widow in 1655 
was disapproved of by many principal persons, and it is not unlike- 
ly that her death saved the lives of many other inferior persons. 1 
But in 1685 a very circumstantial account of all or most of the 
cases I have mentioned was published, and many arguments 
were brought to convince the country that they were no delusions 
or impostures, but the effects of a familiarity between the devil 
and such as he found fit for his instruments; and in 1687 or 
1688 began a more alarming instance than any which had pre- 
ceded it. 

Four of the children of John Goodwin, a grave man and a 
good liver, 2 at the north part of Boston, were generally believed 
to be bewitched. 3 I often heard persons who were of the neigh- 
borhood speak of the great consternation it occasioned. The 
children were all remarkable for ingenuity of temper, had been 
religiously educated, and were thought to be without guile. 



1 Inferior persons — persons not in 
so high a position in society as the 
assistant. 

2 Grave man and good liver — a 



man of influence and refinement. 

3 How long was this hefore the 
birth of Governor Hutchinson ? See 
Introduction. 



WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND. 



33 



The eldest was a girl of thirteen or fourteen years. She had 
charged a laundress with taking away some of the family linen. 
The mother of the laundress was one of the wild Irish/ of bad 
character, and gave the Goodwin girl harsh language ; 2 soon after 
which the child fell into fits, which were said to have something 
diabolical in them. One of her sisters and two brothers followed 
her example, and it is said were tormented in the same part of 
their bodies at the same time, although kept in separate apart- 
ments and in ignorance of one another's complaints. 

One or two things were said to be very remarkable — all their 
complaints were in the day-time, and they slept comfortably all 
night; they were struck dead 3 at the sight of the Assembly's 
Catechism, Cotton's Milk for Babes, and some other good books ; 
but could read in Oxford's Jests, Popish and Quaker books, and 
the Common Prayer without any difficulty. Is it possible the 
mind of man should be capable of such strong prejudices as that 
a suspicion of fraud should not immediately arise ? 

But attachment to modes and forms in religion had such 
force that some of these circumstances seemed rather to con- 
firm the credit of the children. Sometimes they would be deaf, 
then dumb, then blind; and sometimes all these disorders to- 
gether would come upon them. Their tongues would be drawn 
down their throats, then pulled out upon their chins. Their 
jaws, neck, shoulders, elbows, and all their joints would appear 
to be dislocated, and they would make most piteous outcries of 



1 Wild Irish — the term commonly 
used by the English in the seven- 
teenth century to designate the lower 
classes of the people of Ireland. 

2 Gave harsh language — used 
harsh language towards. 

3 Struck dead — frightened ex- 
ceedingly. The Catechism and the 
other books which the children 
could not read were writings which 
the Puritans regarded as especially 
excellent; while the others, including 



the regular Episcopal Prayer-book, 
were looked upon as exceedingly 
vicious. That the children could 
read the bad and not the good was 
a certain indication to the people of 
the neighborhood that they were 
under the influence of the devil. 
To the people of to-day it only indi- 
cates that the children were very 
ingenious in the lies which they 
acted and spoke, 



34 



WITCHCRAFT IN XEW ENGLAND. 



burnings, of being cut with knives, beat, etc., and the marks of 
wounds were afterwards to be seen. 

The ministers of Boston and Charlestown kept a day of fast- 
ing and prayer at the troubled house, after which the youngest 
child made no more complaints. The others persevered, where- 
upon the magistrates interposed and the old woman was appre- 
hended. 

Upon examination she would neither confess nor deny, and 
appeared to be disordered in her senses. Upon the report of 
physicians that she was compos mentis, 1 she was executed, de- 
claring at her death that the children should not be believed. 
The eldest girl, after this, was taken into a minister's family, 
where at first she behaved orderly but after some time suddenly 
fell into her fits. The account of her affliction is in print: some 
things are mentioned as extraordinary, which tumblers 8 are every 
day taught to perforin : others seem more than natural : but it was 
a time of great credulity. 

The children finally returned to their ordinary behavior, lived 
to adult age. made profession of religion, and the affliction they 
had been under they publicly declared to be one motive to 
it. One of them I knew many years after. She had the charac- 
ter of a sober, virtuous woman, and never made any acknowledg- 
ment of fraud in this transaction. The printed account was pub- 
lished with a preface by Mr. Baxter, who says, " The evidence is 
so convincing, that he must be a very obdurate Sadducee 3 who 
will not believe/' It obtained credit sufficient, together with 
other preparatives, to dispose the whole country to be easily im- 
posed upon by the more extensive and more tragic scene, which 
was presently after acted at Salem and other parts of the county 
of Essex. 

Xot many years before, Glanvil published his witch stories in 



Compos mentis — of sound mind; 
not insane. 

2 T umblers . Mea n in g f 

3 Sadducee here means merely 



an unreasonable doubter of estab- 
lished truth. The name was com- 
monly used to describe one who 
disputed the reality of witchcraft. 



WITCHCRAFT IN XE1Y FXGLAXD. 



35 



England. Perkins and other Xoneonformists 1 were earlier: but 
the great authority was that of Sir Matthew Hale, 2 revered in 
Xew England, not only for his knowledge in the law. but for his 
gravity and piety. The trial of the witches in Suffolk was pub- 
lished in 16S4. All these books were in Xew England, and the 
conformity between the behavior of Goodwin's children and most 
of the supposed bewitched at Salem and the behavior of those 
in England is so exact, as to leave no doubt the stories had been 
read by the Xew England persons themselves, or had been told 
to them by others who had read them. Indeed, this conformity, 
instead of giving suspicion, was urged in confirmation of the 
truth of both, the Old England demons and the Xew being so 
much alike. 

Reproach, then, for hanging witches, although it has been 
often cast upon the people of Xew England by those of Old, 
yet it must have been done with an ill grace. 

Sir William Phips, 3 the governor, upon his arrival, fell in with 
the opinion prevailing. Mr, Stoughton, the lieutenant-govern- 
or, upon whose judgment great stress was laid, had taken up this 
notion, that although the devil might appear in the shape of a 
guilty person, yet he would never be permitted to assume the 
shape of an innocent person. This opinion at first was gener- 
ally received; some of the most religious women who were ac- 
cused, when they saw the appearance of distress and torture in 
their accusers, and heard their solemn declarations that they 
saw shapes or specters of the accused afflicting them, persuaded 
themselves that they were witches, and that the devil somehow or 

Nonconformist — one who did mou belief in witchcraft, and as a 

not worship according to the forms judge promoted the conviction and 

of the Church of England. execution of unhappy creatures ac- 

' 2 Sir Matthew Hale — an eminent cused of it. 

English lawyer and judge. Born 3 Sir William Phips — Governor of 

1609; died 1676. He was generally Massachusetts from 1692 to 1694. 

recognized as a man of the highest In what important military and 

genius and the purest integrity. ; naval expedition did he take the 

It is the one great stain upon his ■. leading part? See "Anderson's 

reputation that he shared the com- i Pictorial History of the U. $.," p. 56. 



36 



WITCHCRAFT IN NEW FXGLAXD. 



other, although they could not remember how or when, had 
taken possession of their evil hearts and obtained some sort of 
assent to his afflicting in their shapes; and therefore they 
thought they might be justified in confessing themselves guilty, 

Give the meaning of the folio icing words: 



Contagion' 

Reputation 

Conference 

Familiar 

Covenant 

Ventriloquist 

Imposture 



3Iolested 

Hypochondriac 

Melancholy 

Circumstantial 

Delusions 

Ingenuity 

Diabolical 



Piteous 

Credulity 

Adult 

Obdurate 

Preparative 

Conformity 

Preternatural 



CHAPTER II. 

It seems at this day with some people, perhaps but few, to 
be the question whether the accused or the afflicted were under 
a preternatural or diabolical possession, rather than whether the 
afflicted were under bodily distempers or altogether guilty of 
fraud and imposture. As many of the original examinations 1 
have fallen into my hands, it may be of service to represent the 
affair at Salem in a more full and impartial light than it has yet 
appeared to the world. 

In February, 1692, a daughter and a niece of Mr. Paris 
(or Parris, as the name is sometimes written), the minister of 
Salem village, girls of ten or eleven years of age, and two other 
girls in the neighborhood, made the same sort of complaints 
as Goodwin's children had made two or three years before. 
The physicians, having no other way of accounting for the dis- 
order, pronounced them bewitched. An Indian woman, who had 
been brought into the country from Xew Spain 2 and who then lived 



1 Original examinations — the re- 
ports of the proceedings when the 
witches were tried and executed. 



Where is Salem ? 
- New Spain. Where was it ? 



WITCHCRAFT IX KEW EXGLAXD. 



3? 



with Mr. Paris, tried some experiments, which she pretended to 
be used in her country, in order to find out the witch. This 
coming to the children's knowledge, they cried out upon the 
poor Indian, as appearing to them, pinching, pricking, and tor- 
menting them, and fell into fits. Tituba, the Indian, acknowl- 
edged that she had learned how to find out a witch, but denied 
that she was one herself. Several private fasts were kept in the 
minister's house, and several more public by the whole village, 
and then a general fast through the colony, to seek to God to 
rebuke Satan. 

So much notice taken of the children, together with the pity 
and compassion expressed by those who visited them, not only 
tended to confirm them in their designs but to draw others into 
the like. Accordingly the number of the complaints soon in- 
creased, and among those making them were two or three women, 
and some girls old enough for witnesses. These had their fits too, 
and when in them cried out not only against Tituba but 
against Sarah Osburn, a melancholy distracted old woman, and 
Sarah Good, another old woman who was bedrid. 1 Tituba at 
length confessed herself a witch and declared that the two old 
women were confederates. All were then committed to prison; 
and Tituba, 2 upon search, was found to have scars upon her back 
which were called the devil's marks, but which might as well have 
been supposed to be those of her Spanish master. This commit- 
ment was on the 1st of March. 

About three weeks after, two other women, of good character 
and church-members, Corey and [Nurse byname, were complained 
of and brought upon their examination. Again the children 
fell into fits; and the mother of one of them, the wife of 
Thomas Putman, joined with the children and complained of 
Xurse as tormenting her, making most terrible shrieks, to the 
amazement of all the neighborhood. The old women denied 



1 Bedrid — confined to her bed under the circumstances the scars 
with disease. of former beating were not at all to 

2 Tituba had been a slave, and be wondered at. 



38 



WITCHCRAFT IX XEK FXGLAXD. 



everything, but they were sent to prison: and such was the in- 
fatuation, that a child of Sarah Good, about four or five years 
old, was committed also, being charged with biting some of the 
afflicted, 1 who showed the print of small teeth upon their arms. 

On April 3d, Mr. Paris, the minister, took for his text, 66 Have 
not I cJiose/i you twelve, and one of you is a devil" Sarah Clovse, 
supposing it to be occasioned by Nurse's case, who was her sis- 
ter, went out of meeting. She was presently after complained of 
for a witch, examined, and committed. Elizabeth Proctor was 
charged about the same time. Her husband, as every good hus- 
band would have done, accompanied her to the examination, but 
it cost the poor man his life. Some of the afflicted cried out 
upon him 2 also, and they were both committed to prison. 

Instead of suspecting and sifting the witnesses and suffering 
them to be cross-examined, 3 the authority, 4 to say no more, were 
imprudent in making use of leading questions, and thereby put- 
ting words into their mouths or suffering others to do it. Mr. 
Paris was over-officious: most of the examinations, although in 
the presence of one or more of the magistrates, were taken by 
him. The following examinations of the accused may serve as 
specimens, they being generally made in the same manner: 



At a court held at Salem, \ Wi April, 1692, by the Honorable Thomas 
Danforth, deputy-governor: 

Q. John, who hurt you ? 5 

A. Goody Proctor first, then Goody Cloyse. 6 



1 The biting was supposed to 
be done while the child was invis- 
ible. The power to become invisi- 
ble at will was one of the gifts 
which the devil was said to confer 
upon those familiar with him, 

' 2 Cried out upon him: complained 
that he was hurting them. 

3 Cross-examined. Meaning f 

4 The authority— i.e., the judges 



and other law officials. 

5 This "John" was the Indian 
husband of Tituba. He was cun- 
ning enough to save himself by pre- 
tending to be afflicted. 

6 Goody — sometimes "good- 
wife a term formerly much used 
as a prefix in speaking to or of a 
woman ; like " mistress'' or " Mrs." 
nowadays, but less dignified, 



WITCHCRAFT IX NEW EXGLAXD. 



39 



Q. What did she do to you ? 

A. She brought the book 1 to me. 

Q. John, tell the truth: who hurts you ? Have you been hurt ? 

A. The first was a gentlewoman I saw. 

Q. Who next? 

A. Goody Cloyse. 

Q. But who hurt you next?. 

A. Goody Proctor. 

Q. What did she do to you ? 

A. She choked' me and brought the book. 

Q. How often did she come to torment you ? 

A, A good many times, she and Goody Cloyse. 

Q. Did they come to you in the night as well as the day ? 

A. They came most in the day. 

Q. Who? 

A. Goody Cloyse and Goody Proctor. 

Q. Where did she take hold of you ? 

A. Upon my throat, to stop my breath. 

Q. Do you know Goody Close and Goody Proctor? 

A. Yes, here is Goody Cloyse 

Q. (By Goody Cloyse.) When did I hurt thee ? 

A. A great many times. 

Cloyse : Oh ! you are a grievous liar. 

Q. What did this Goody Cloyse do to you ? 

A. She pinched and bit me till the blood came. 

Q. How long since this woman came and hurt you ? 

A. Yesterday at meeting. 

Q. At any time before? 

A. Yes, a great many times. 

Q. Mary Walcot, who hurts you? 

A. Goody Cloyse. 

Q. What did she do to you ? 

A. She hurt me. 

Q. Did she bring the book ? 

A. Yes. 

Q. What was you to do with it ? 

A. To touch it and be well. (Here the girl fell into a fit.) 
Q. Doth she come alone ? 

A. Sometimes alone, and sometimes in company with Goody Nurse and 



brought the book — i.e., the book in which, according to the common 
belief, the agreement to serve the devil was written. 



40 



WITCHCRAFT IX XEW FXGLAXD. 



Goody Corey, and a great many I do not know. (Then she fell into a fit 

again.) 

Q. Abigail Williams, did you see a company at Mr. Paris 's house eat 
and drink ? 

A. Yes, sir ; that was their sacrament. 
Q. How many were there ? 

A. About forty, and Goody Cloyse and Goody Good were their dea- 
cons. 

Q. What was it they drank ? 

A. They said it was our blood, and they had it twice that day. 
Q. Mary Walcot. have you seen a white man? 1 
A. Yes, sir, a great man}' times. 
Q. What sort of a man was he? 

A. A fine grave man, and when he came he made all the witches to 
tremble. 

Abigail Williams confirmed the same and said that they had such a 
sight at Deacon Ingersoll's. 

Q. Who was at Deacon Ingersoll's then ? 

A. Goody Cloyse, Goody Nurse, Goody Corey, and Goody Good. 

Then Sarah Cloyse asked for water, and sat down as one seized with a 
dying fainting fit ; and several of the afflicted fell into fits, and some of 
them cried out, " Oh ! her spirit is gone to prison to her sister Nurse." 

Q. Elizabeth Proctor, you understand whereof you are charged, viz., 
to be guilty of sundry acts of witchcraft ; what say you to it ? Speak the 
truth, and so you that are afflicted, you speak the truth, as you will an- 
swer it before God another day. Mary Walcot, doth this woman hurt 
you? 

A. I never saw her so as to be hurt by her. 

Q. Mary Lewis, does she hurt you ? 

(No answer ; her mouth was stopped.) 

Q. Ann Putman, does she hurt you ? 

(No answer ; she could not speak.) 

Q. Abigail Williams, does she hurt you? 

(No answer ; her hand was thrust in her own mouth ) 

Q. John, does she hurt you? 

A. This is the woman that came in her shift and choked me. 



1 A white man. The afflicted of- 
ten described one of the company 
who hurt them as a white man. ex- 
actly like the black man, except in 
color. Sometimes, however, the 



"white man" was said to act the 
part of a good spirit, giving aid to 
the sufferer against the designs of 
the devil. 



WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND. 



41 



Q. Did she ever bring the book? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. What to do ? 

A. To write. 

Q. What ! this woman? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Are you sure of it ? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Again, Abigail Williams and Ann Putman were spoken to by the court, 
but neither of them could make any auswer, by reason of dumbness or 
other fits. 

Q. What do you say. Goody Proctor, to these things ? 
A. I take God in heayen to be my witness, that I know nothing of it. 
— no more than the child unborn. 

Q. Ann Putman, does this woman hurt you ? 
A. Yes, sir, a great many times. 

Then the accused looked upon them and they fell into fits. 
Q. She does not bring the book to you, does she? 

A. Yes. sir, often : and saith she hath made her maid set her hand to it. 

Q. Abigail Williams, does this woman hurt you? 

A. Yes, sir, often. 

Q. Does she bring the book to you ? 

A. Yes. 

Q. What would she haye you do with it ? 
A. To write in it and I shall be well. 

Did you not, said Abigail to Goody Proctor, tell me that your maid 
had written ? 

A. Dear child, it is not so. There is another judgment, dear child. 

Then Abigail and Ann had fits. By and by they cried out, " Look you, 
there is Goody Proctor upon the beam." 1 

By and by both of them cried out against Goodman- Proctor himself, 
and said he was a wizard. Immediately many if not all of the bewitched 
had grieyous fits. 

Q. Ann Putman, who hurt you ? 

A. Goodman Proctor, and his wife too. 



1 Upon the beam— i.e., one of the 
beams supporting tbe ceiling of the 
room. Witches were supposed to 
have the power of getting out of 
their bodies in some mysterious Avay 
and flying through the air from 



place to place. At such times they 
were only visible to those whom 
the}' wished to see them. 

2 Goodman— the term prefixed to 
a man's name, as " Goody" to a 
woman 's. 



42 



WITCHCRAFT IN NEW EXGLAND. 



Afterwards some of the afflicted cried, 4 'There is Proctor going to 
take up Mrs. Pope's feet and her feet were immediately taken up. 
Q. What do you say, Goodman Proctor, to these things ? 
A. 1 know not; I am innocent. 

Abigail Williams cried out, " There is Goodman Proctor going to Mrs. 
Pope;" and immediately the said Pope fell into a fit. 

The examiner said to Proctor : " You see the devil will deceive you; the 
children could see what you was going to do before the woman was hurt. 
I would advise you to repentance, for the devil is bringing you out." 

Abigail Williams cried out again, "There is Goodman Proctor going 
to hurt Goody Bibber;" and immediately Goody Bibber fell in a fit. There 
was the like of Mary Walcot, and divers others. 

Benjamin Gould gave his testimony, that he had seen Goodman Corey 
and his wife, Proctor and his wife, Goody Cloyse, Goody Nurse, and 
Goody Griggs in his chamber last Thursday night; Elizabeth Hubbard 
was in a trance during the whole examination. 

During the examination of Elizabeth Proctor, Abigail Williams and 
Ann Putman both made offer to strike at said Proctor; but when Abigail's 
hand came near, it opened, whereas it was made up into a fist before, and 
came down exceeding lightly as it drew near to said Proctor, and at 
length with open and extended fingers touched Proctor's hood very lightly. 
Immediately Abigail cried out that her fingers burned, and Ann Putman 
took on most grievously of her head, 1 and sunk down." 

" Salem, April 11th, 1692. Mr. Samuel Paris was desired by the hon- 
orable Thomas Danforth, deputy-governor, and the council, to make in 
writing the aforesaid examinations, and accordingly took and delivered 
them in ; and upon hearing the same, and seeing what was then seen, to- 
gether wuth the charge of the afflicted persons, the accused were, by the 
advice of the council, all committed by us." 



John Hawthokne, 
John Cokwin, 



Assistants. 



Give the meaning of the following words : 
Impartial Confederates 
Compassion Infatuation 
Sacrament 



Officious 
Specimen 



1 Took on of her head— complained that her head was hurting her. 



WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND. 



43 



CHAPTER III. 

No wonder the whole country was in consternation, when 
persons of sober lives and unblemished characters were com- 
mitted to prison upon such sort of evidence. Nobody was safe. 
The most effectual way to prevent an accusation was to become 
an accuser ; and accordingly the number of the afflicted increased 
every day, and the number of accused in proportion, who in gen- 
eral persisted in their innocency ; but, being strongly urged to 
give glory to God by their confession, and intimation being given 
that this was the only way to save their lives, and their friends 
urging them to do it, some were brought to own their guilt. The 
first confession upon the files 1 is that of Deliverance Hobbs, May 
11, 1692, being in prison. She owned everything she was re- 
quired to do. 

The confessions multiplied the witches ; new companies were 
always mentioned, who were immediately sent for and examined. 
Thus more than an hundred women, many of them of fair char- 
acters and of the most reputable families in the towns of Salem, 
Beverly, Andover, Billerica, etc., were apprehended, examined, 
and generally committed to prison. The confessions being much 
of the same tenor, one or two may serve for specimens. 

The examination and confession (Sept. 8, 1692) of Mary Osgood, wife of Capt. 
Osgood, of Andover, taken before John Hawthorne and other Their Majes- 
ties' justices. 

She confesses that about eleven years ago, when she was in a melan- 
choly state and condition, she used to walk abroad in her orchard ; and 
upon a certain time she saw the appearance of a cat at the end of the house, 
which yet she thought was a real cat. However, at that time it diverted 
her from praying to God, and instead thereof she prayed to the devil ; 
about which time she made a covenant with the devil, who as a black man 
came to her and presented her a book, upon which she laid her finger, and 



1 Files. Meaning? 



44: 



WITCHCRAFT IX NEW ENGLAND. 



that left a red spot ; and that, upon her signing, the devil told her he was 
her god, and that she should serve and worship him, and she believes she 
consented to it. 

She says, further, that about two years agone she was carried through 
the air in company with Deacon Frye's wife, Ebenezer Baker's wife, and 
Goody Tyler to Five Mile Pond, where she was baptized by the devil, who 
dipped her face in the water and made her renounce her former baptism 
and told her she must be his, soul and body, forever, and that she must 
serve him, which she promised to do. She says the renouncing her first 
baptism was after her dipping, and that she was transported back again 
through the air, in company with the forenamed persons, in the same man- 
ner as she went, and believes they were carried upon a pole. 

Q. How many persons were upon the pole? 

A. As I said before : viz., four persons, and no more but whom she had 
named above. 

She confessed she had afflicted three persons, — John Sawdy, Martha 
Sprague, and Rose Foster, — and that she did it by pinching her bedclothes, 
and giving consent the devil should do it in her shape ; she said that the 
devil could not do it without her consent. She confesses afflicting per- 
sons in the court by the glance of her eye. She says, as she was coming 
down to Salem to be examined, she and the rest of the company with her 
stopped at Mr. Philips's to refresh themselves ; and the afflicted persons, 
being behind them upon the road, came up just as she was mounting again 
and were then afflicted, and cried out upon her, so that she was forced to 
stay until they were all past, and said she only looked that way towards 
them. 

Q. Do you know the devil can take the shape of an innocent person 
and afflict ? 

A. I believe he cannot. 

Q. Who taught you this way of witchcraft ? 

A. Satan. And she added that he promised her abundance of satisfac- 
tion and quietness in her future state, but never performed anything ; and 
that she has lived more miserable and more discontented since than ever 
before. She confesses, further, that she herself, in company with Goody 
Parker, Goody Tyler, and Goody Dean, had a meeting at Moses Tyler's 
house last Monday night to afflict, and that she and Goody Dean carried the 
shape of Mr. Dean, the minister, between them to make persons believe 
that Mr. Dean afflicted. 

Q. What hindered you from accomplishing what you intended ? 

A. The Lord would not suffer it to be that the devil should afflict in an 
innocent person's shape. 

Q. Have you been at any other witch meetings ? 



WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND. 



45 



A. I know nothing thereof, as I shall answer in the presence of God 
and his people. 

But she said that the black man stood before her, and told her that what 
she had confessed was a lie ; notwithstanding, she said that what she had 
confessed was true, and thereto put her hand. Her husband being present 
was asked if he judged his wife to be any way discomposed. 1 He an- 
swered, that having lived with her so long he doth not judge her to be any 
ways discomposed, but has cause to believe what she has said is true. 

When Mistress Osgood was first called she afflicted Martha Sprague and 
Rose Foster by the glance of her eyes, and recovered them out of their fits 
by the touch of her hand. Mary Lacy and Betty Johnson and Hannah 
Post saw Mistress Osgood afflicting Sprague and Foster. The said Hannah 
Post and Mary Lacy and Betty Johnson, Jr., and Rose Foster and Mary 
Richardson were afflicted by Mistress Osgood in the time of their examina- 
tion, and recovered by her touching of their hands. 

This report was signed by John Higginson, Justice of the 
Peace. 

A miserable negro woman, charged by some of the girls with 
afflicting them, confessed, but was cunning enough to bring the 
greatest share of the guilt upon her mistress. 

Salem, Monday, July 4, 1692. 
The examination of Candy, a negro woman, before Bartholomew Gedney and 
John Hawthorne, Esqrs., Mr. Nicholas Noyes also present. 
Q. Candy, are you a witch? 

A. Candy no witch in her country, Candy's mother no witch, Candy no 
witch, Barbadoes. This country, mistress give Candy witch. 
Q. Did your mistress make you a witch in this country? 
A. Yes ; in this country mistress give Candy witch. 
Q. What did your mistress do to make you a witch ? 
A. Mistress bring book and pen and ink ; make Candy write in it, 
Q. What did you write in it? 

In reply she took a pen and ink, and upon a book or paper made a mark. 
Q. How did you afflict or hurt these folks? Where are the puppets 2 
you did it with ? 

She asked to go out of the room, and she would show or tell ; upon 
which she had liberty, one going with her, and she presently brought in 



1 Discomposed — out of her mind 

2 Puppets — rough images or dolls 
which the witches were supposed to 
make and call by the names of those 



whom they wished to afflict. By 
pinching or striking these figures 
the pain was caused in the victims. 



46 



WITCHCRAFT IX XEW EXGLAXD. 



two clouts, one with two knots tied in it, the other with one. This being 
seen by Mary Warren, Deliverance Hobbs, and Abigail Hobbs, they were 
greatly affrighted, and fell into violent fits ; and all of them said that the 
black man and Mrs. Hawkes and the negro stood by the puppets or rags 
and pinched them, and then they were afflicted ; and when the knots were 
untied, yet they continued as aforesaid. A bit of one of the rags being set 
on fire, they all said they were burned, and cried out dreadfully. The 
rags being put into water, two of the aforenamed persons were in dreadful 
fits and almost choked, and the other was violently running down to the 
river, but was stopped. Attest: Johx Hawthorne, Just. Peace. 

Mrs. Hawkes, the mistress, had no other way to save her life 
but to confess also. 

Mr. Hale, the minister of Beverly, who has the character of 
an impartial relater, acknowledges that the confessors generally 
went off from their confessions, some saving they remembered 
nothing of what they had said, others that they belied them- 
selves. But he thinks if the times had been calm, the condition 
of the confessors might have called for a melius inquirendum; 1 
and thinks it remarkable that children and grandchildren should 
confirm the confessions of their parents and grandparents (instanc- 
ing in the case of Goody Foster, her daughter Mary Lacey, and 
granddaughter Mary Lacey, Jr.), and that other children should 
accuse their own parents, as in the case of Richard Carrier, a 
lad of eighteen years of age. 

These confessions are preserved, and their character shows 
that they were forced from the accused through fear of losing 
their lives if they refused ; and their fear in some cases was so 
great as to disorder their brains, and they scarce knew what they 
said. 

Margaret Jacobs had been brought to accuse herself, and 
then to charge Burroughs, 2 the minister, and her own grand- 
father ; but, struck with horror, she chose to lose her own life 



1 Melius inquirendum — a more 
careful examination. 

2 This Mr. Burroughs was accused 
by several of the afflicted persons, 
and also by some of those who con- 



fessed, of having been present at 
meetings where the devil presided 
and the witches frolicked. He was 
convicted and executed. See p. 58. 



WITCHCRAFT IX NEW EXGLANfr 



47 



rather than persist in her confession, and begged forgiveness of 
Burroughs before his execution, who is said to have freely for- 
given her, and recanted all she had said against her grandfather, 
but in vain as to his life. 

Her own life was saved by a disorder in her head, which pre- 
vented her trial at the first court ; but before the next court she 
made a formal recantation of all she had confessed and delivered 
it to the judges. 

The humble declaration of Margaret Jacobs unto the honorable court now sit- 
ting at Salem sheweth : 

That whereas your humble declarant being closely confined here in 
Salem gaol for the crime of witchcraft, which crime, thanks to the Lord, 
I am altogether ignorant of, as will appear at the great day of judgment: 

May it please the honored court, I was cried out upon by some of the 
possessed persons as afflicting them ; whereupon I was brought to my ex- 
amination, which persons at the sight of me fell down, which did very 
much startle and affright me The Lord above knows I knew nothing in 
the least measure who afflicted them or how : they told me without doubt 
I did, or else they would not fall down at me; they told me if I would not 
confess I should be put down into the dungeon and would be hanged, but 
if I would confess I should have my life; the which did so affright me, 
with my own vile, wicked heart, to save my life made me make the like 
confession I did, which confession, may it please the honored court, is alto- 
gether false and untrue. 

The very first night after I made confession, I was in such horror of 
conscience that I could not sleep, for fear the devil should carry me away 
for telling such horrid lies. I was, may it please the honored court, sworn 
to my confession, as I understood since, but then, at that time, was ignorant 
of it, not knowing w T hat an oath did mean. 

The Lord, I hope, in whom I trust, out of the abundance of his mercy, 
will forgive me my forswearing myself. What I said was altogether 
false, against my grandfather and Mr. Burroughs, which I did to save my 
life and to have my liberty; but the Lord, charging it to my conscience, 
made me in so much horror, that I could not contain myself before I had 
denied my confession; which I did, though I saw nothing but death before 
me, choosing rather death with a quiet conscience, than to live in such 
horror, which I could not suffer. Wherefore, upon my denying my confes- 
sion, I was committed to close prison, where I have enjoyed more felicity 
in spirit a thousand times than I did before in my enlargement. 1 



1 Enlargement. What does it mean here ? 



48 



WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND. 



And now, may it please your honors, your declarant having in part 
given your honors a description of my condition, do leave to your honors' 
pious and judicious discretions to take pity and compassion on my young 
and tender years, to act and do with me as the Lord above and your honors 
shall see good, having no friend but the Lord to plead my cause for me, 
not being guilty in the least measure of the crime of witchcraft, nor any 
other sin that deserves death from man; and your poor and humble de- 
clarant shall forever pray, as she is bound in duty, for your honors' hap- 
piness in this life, and eternal felicity in the world to come. So prays 
your honors' declarant, Margaret Jacobs. 

Among the confessing witches I find Dorothy Falkener, a 
child of ten years; Abigail Falkener, of eight; and Sarah Carrier, 
between seven and eight. 

Sarah Carrier's Confession, August 11,. 1696. 
It was asked Sarah Carrier by the magistrates or justices, John Haw- 
thorne, Esq., and others : 

How long have you been a witch ? 
A. Ever since I was six years old. 
Q. How old are you now ? 

A. Near eight years old; brother Richard says I shall be eight years 
old November next. 

Q. Who made you a witch? 

A. My mother; she made me set my hand to a book. 
Q. How did you set your hand to it ? 

A. I touched it with my fingers and the book was red; the paper of it 
was white. 

She said she never had seen the black man; the place where she did it 
was in Andrew Foster's pasture, and Elizabeth Johnson, Jun., was there. 
Q Who was there beside ? 
A. Aunt Toothaker and my cousin. 
Q When was this ? 
A. When I was baptized. 
Q. What did they promise to give you ? 
A. A black dog. 

Q. Did the dog ever come to you? 
A. No. 

Q. But you said you saw a cat once; what did that say to you? 
A. It said it would tear me in pieces if I would not set my hand to the 
book. 

She said her mother baptized her, and the devil or black man was not 



WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND. 



49 



there, as she saw; and her mother said when she baptized her, u Thou art 
mine forever and ever, and amen." 

Q. How did you afflict folks? 

A. I pinched them. 

She said she had no puppets, but she went to them that she afflicted. 

Q. Did you go in your body or spirit ? 

A. In my spirit; mother carried me there to afflict. 

Q. How did your mother carry you when she was in prison? 

A. She came like a black cat. 

Q. How did you know that it was your mother? 

A. The cat told me that she was my mother. 

She said she afflicted Phelps' child last Saturday, and Elizabeth Johnson 
joined with her to do it. She had a wooden spear, about as long as her 
finger, of Elizabeth Johnson, who had it of the devil. 

She would not own that she had ever been at the witch meeting at the 
village. 

This is the substance. Attest: Simon Willard. 

This poor child's mother then lay under sentence of death. 
The mother of the other two children was in prison, and was soon 
after tried and condemned ; but upon her confession she was 
reprieved, and finally pardoned. 

I met with but one person in near an hundred whose exami- 
nations are upon file, that was dismissed after having been once 
charged, for which he might thank one of the girls, who would 
not agree with the rest in the accusation. 

For three or four months the afflicted generally confined 
themselves to their own neighborhood in their accusations. In 
the examinations there is sometimes mention made of strangers, 
whose shapes or specters were unknown to the afflicted. 

The first accused in any other county was Mrs. Gary, wife 
of Nathaniel Cary, a principal inhabitant of the town of Charles- 
town. He, as soon as he heard of it, carried his wife to Salem 
village, supposing she would not be known to the afflicted. They 
happened to arrive just as the justices were going into the 
meeting-house, where they held their court to examine prison- 
ers. All the prisoners who were brought in were accused, and 
the girls fell into fits as usual ; but Mrs. Cary came in and sat 



50 



WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND. 



without any notice, except that one or two of the afflicted came 
to her and asked her name. 

After the examination her husband went to the tavern, 
intending there to discourse with one of the girls whom he 
heard had accused his wife. John the Indian/ who pretended to 
be one of the afflicted, was a servant in the house. 

Two of the girls w T ere soon brought in, and instead of giving 
any opportunity of discoursing with them, they tumbled about 
the floor, crying out, " Cary ! Cary !" and a warrant came to 
apprehend, her. The Indian joined the two girls in the charge. 
Xo bail could be admitted, nor was it to any purpose to make 
any defense, and she was ordered to prison in Boston ; but upon 
the request of her husband she was removed to Cambridge jail, 
where she was kept in irons. 

Afterwards, when the trials came on at Salem, her husband 
went there to see how they were managed, and he thought the 
only chance his wife had for her life w r as by an escape. This by 
some means or other he effected and fled with her to New 
York, where Governor Fletcher entertained them very cour- 
teously. 

They petitioned, I suppose before the escape, that she might 
be tried in the county where she lived. If the court thought 
they were bound to try the fact in the county where it was com- 
mitted, there seems to have been room for an argument, her 
body being in Middlesex 2 at the same time that her specter 3 and 
the body of the afflicted persons were in Essex. 

Mrs. Cary was committed about the middle of May. Towards 
the end of the month, Captain John Alden, of Boston, was 
accused and was thereupon sent down to Salem. He had been 
many years commander of a sloop in the colony service, employed 
for supplying the ports east with provisions and stores ; and 

1 John the Indian — Tituba's bus- 3 Specter. A witch could, by the 
band. See page 38. power given her by the devil, ap- 

2 Middlesex — i.e., Middlesex'Coun- pear far from the place where her 
ty, in which was Charlestown, the body actually was, 

woman's home. I 



WITCHCRAFT IX NEW ENGLAND. 



51 



although upon his first appearing the justices allowed that he 
always had the character of an honest man. vet one of them, 
Gidney, soon after let him know he then saw reason to think 
otherwise of him. 

Aldem, in his account, says that the accuser first pointed to 
another man and said nothing ; but the man who held her stooped 
down to her ear, and then she cried out, "Alden ! Alden !" All 
were ordered into the streets, and a ring made, and then she 
cried out, " There stands Alden, a bold fellow, with his hat on ; 
sells powder and shot to the Indians, 1 etc" He was immediately 
taken into custody of the marshal and required to deliver up his 
sword. A further examination was held in the meeting-house, 
and his hands were held open by the officer that he might not 
pinch the afflicted, who were struck down at the sight of him and 
made their usual cries. All this the justices deemed sufficient 
grounds for committing him to jail, where he lay fifteen weeks. 
Then he was prevailed on by his friends to make his escape and 
to absent himself until the consternation should abate and the 
people recover the use of their reason. 

Give the meaning of the following words : 

Consternation Recantation 
Unblemished Declarant 
Intimation Dungeon 
Renounce Felicity 
Impartial Reprieved 



CHAPTER IV. 

Although the number of prisoners had been increasing from 
February until the beginning of June, yet there had been no 
trials. The charter 2 had been expected from day to day, and 



Warrant 

Courteously 

Custody 

Abate 



1 Selling powder and shot to the 
Indians was a very serious offense 
in those early days. 



2 The expected charter was the 
one which was granted by William 
and Mary, after the great revolution. 



52 



WITCHCRAFT IX NEW ENGLAND. 



the new constitution of government that was to take place. 
Soon after its arrival commissioners of oyer and terminer 1 were 
announced for the trial of witchcrafts. 

By the charter, the general assembly are to constitute coitrts 
of justice, and the governor, with the advice of the council, is to 
nominate and appoint judges, commissioners of oyer and ter- 
miner, etc. ; but whether the governor, with advice of the council, 
can constitute a court of oyer and terminer, without authority 
for the purpose derived from the general assembly, has been 
made a question. This, however, the most importaut court to 
the life of the subject which ever was held in the province, was 
constituted in no other manner than by the governor. It was 
opened in Salem, the first week in June. 

Only one of the accused. Bridget Bishop alias 1 Oliver, was 
then brought to trial. She had been charged with witchcraft 
twenty years before, though the accuser on his death-bed con- 
fessed his own guilt in the accusation. But an old woman 
once charged with being a witch is never afterwards wholly free 
from the accusation ; and she being besides of a fractious tem- 
per, all the losses the neighbors met with in their cattle and 
poultry, and accidents in oversetting their carts, etc., were at- 
tributed to her spite against them and were now suffered to be 
testified against her. 

This evidence, together with the testimony of the afflicted 
and of the confessors as to what they had heard from the spec- 
ters and seen of her specter, and an excrescence 4 found upon her 



in England in 1688. How had Mas- 
sachusetts been deprived of her 
old charter, and who was governor 
at the time? See " Andersou*s Picto- 
rial History of the U. S., M p. 55. 

1 Oyer and terminer — a court where 
ordinary crimes are regularly tried. 
The words mean "to hear and to 
determine," and the name was 
given to the court because the 
judges were ordered to hear and to 



determine or decide the charges of 
crime brought against any one. 

3 ANak. Meaning? 

3 The devil was supposed to put a 
peculiar mark somewhere upon the 
body of a person who entered his 
service as a witch. Many a poor 
woman lost her life because a mole 
or some other natural birth-mark 
was found upon her, 



WITCHCRAFT IX NEW ENGLAND. 



53 



body, were deemed by the court and jury plenary proofs, and 
she was conyicted and on the 10th of June executed. 1 The fur- 
ther trials were put off by adjournment to the 30th of June. 

The goyernor and council thought proper in the mean time 
to take the opinion of seyeral of the principal ministers upon 
the state of things as they stood. This was an old charter prac- 
tice. They gaye their opinion as follows : 

The return of several ministers, consulted by his Excellency and the Honor- 
able Council upon the present witchcraft in Salem village. 

Boston, June 15, 1692. 

1. The afflicted state of our poor neighbors that are now suffering by 
molestations from the invisible world we apprehend so deplorable, that 
we think their condition calls for the -utmost help of all persons in their 
several capacities. 

2. We cannot but with all thankfulness acknowledge the success 
which the merciful God has given to the sedulous and assiduous endeavors 
of our honorable rulers to defeat the abominable witchcrafts which have 
been committed in the country, humbly praying that the discovery of 
these nrvsterious and mischievous wickednesses may be perfected. 

3. We judge that in the prosecution of these and all such witchcrafts 
there is need of a very critical and exquisite caution, lest by too much 
credulity for things received only upon the devil's authority there be a 
door opened for a long train of miserable consequences, and Satan get an 
advantage over us ; for we should not be ignorant of his devices. 

4. As in complaints upon witchcraft there may be matters of inquiry 
which do not amount unto matters of presumption, and there may be 
matters of presumption which, yet may not be matters of conviction, so it 
is necessary that all proceedings thereabout be managed with an exceed- 
ing tenderness toward those that may be complained of, especially if they 
have been persons formerly of an unblemished reputation. 

5. When the first inquiry is made into the circumstances of such as may 
lie under the just suspicion of witchcrafts, we could wish that there may 
be admitted as little as possible of such noise, company, and openness as 
may too hastily expose them that are examined, and that there may be 
nothing used as a test for the trial of the suspected, the lawfulness where- 
of may be doubted by the people of God ; but that the directions given by 
such judicious writers as Perkins and Barnard maybe observed. 

6. Presumptions whereupon persons may be committed, and, much 

1 The ordinary method of execution for witches was by fire. At Salem, 
however, all were put to death by hanging. 



54 



WITCHCRAFT M NEW EXGLAKD. 



more, convictions whereupon persons may be condemned as guilty of 
witchcrafts, ought certainly to be more considerable than barely the ac- 
cused persons being represented by a specter unto the afflicted ; inasmuch 
as it is an undoubted and notorious thing, that a demon may, by God's per- 
mission, appear, even to ill purposes, in the shape of an innocent, 1 yea, and 
a virtuous man. Nor can we esteem alterations made in the sufferers by 
a look or touch of the accused to be an infallible evidence of guilt, but 
frequently liable to be abused by the devil's legerdemain. 

7. We know not whether some remarkable affronts given the devils, by 
our disbelieving these testimonies whose whole force and strength is 
from them alone, may not put a period unto - the progress of the dreadful 
calamity begun upon us, in the accusation of so many persons, whereof 
some, we hope, are yet clear from the great transgression laid to their 
charge. 

8. Nevertheless, we cannot but humbly recommend unto the govern- 
ment the speedy and vigorous prosecutions of such as have rendered 
themselves obnoxious, according to the directions given in the laws of 
God and the wholesome statutes of the English nation for the detection 
of witchcrafts. 

The judges seem to have paid more regard to the last article 
of this return than to several which precede it ; for the prose- 
cutions were carried on with all possible vigor, and without that 
exquisite caution which is proposed. 

At the first trial there was no colonial or provincial law 
against witchcraft in force. The statute of James I. must there- 
fore have been considered as in force in the province, witchcraft 
not being an offense at common law. Before the adjournment 
ended, the old colonial law, which makes witchcraft a capital 
offense, was revived, with the other local laws as they are called, 
and made a law of the province. 

At the end of the adjournment, June 30, five women were 



1 It was a much disputed point 
at that day whether the devil could 
assume the shape of an innocent 
man. The opinion that he could, 
as given here, was the only means 
by which some of the most es- 
teemed people of the village escaped 
the fate of witches. When testi- 



mony was given that they had been 
seen in the witch gatherings, they 
were believed when they insisted 
that it was the devil in their form, 
which he assumed to effect their 
ruin. See page 35. 
2 Put a period unto. Meaning t 



WITCHCRAFT TX XEW hWGLAXD, 



55 



brought upon trial: Sarah Good, Eebekah Nurse, Susannah 
Martin, Elizabeth How, and Sarah Wilder. 

There was no difficulty with any but Nurse. She was a 
member of the church and of a good character, and as to her 
the jury brought in their verdict not guilty. Thereupon the 
accusers made a great clamor and the court expressed their dis- 
satisfaction with the verdict, which caused some of the jury to 
desire to go out again. They then brought her in guilty. 
This was a hard case, and can scarcely be said to be the execu- 
tion of law and justice in mercy. In a capital case the court 
often refuses a verdict of guilty, but rarely, if ever, sends a 
jury out again upon one of not guilty. It does not indeed ap- 
pear that in this case the jury was ordered out again, but the 
dissatisfaction expressed by the court seems to have been in 
such a manner as to have the same effect. The certificate given 
by the foreman of the jury to satisfy the relations of the woman 
shows how the fact was. 

July 4, 1692. 

I, Thomas Fisk, the subscriber hereto, being one of them that were 
of the jurj'last week at Salem court upon the trial of Rebekah Nurse, etc., 
being desired by some of the relations to give reason why the jury brought 
her in guilty after the verdict of not guilty, I do hereby give my reasons 
to be as follows : 

When the verdict not guilty was given, the honored court was pleased 
to object against it, saying to them, that they think they let slip the words 
which the prisoner at the bar spoke against herself, which were spoken in 
reply to Goodwife Hobbs and her daughter, who had been faulty in setting 
their hands to the devil's book, as they had confessed formerly. The words 
were, " What do these persons give in evidence against me now ? They used 
to come among us !" After the honored court had manifested their dissatis- 
faction of the verdict, several of the jury declared themselves desirous to 
go out again, and thereupon the honored court gave leave ; but when we 
came to consider the case, I could not tell how to take her words as in evi- 
dence against her, till she had a further opportunity to put her sense upon 
them, 1 if she would take it ; and then going into court, I mentioned the 



1 To put her sense upon them — 
i.e., to explain what she meant by 
the words. They seemed to be 
practically a confession that she was 



a witch, by classing herself with 
the Hobbs women, who had admit- 
ted their guilt. 



56 



WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND. 



words aforesaid, which by one of the court was affirmed to have been 
spoken by her. She, being then at the bar, made no reply nor interpretation 
of them ; whereupon these words were to me a principal evidence against 
her. Thomas Fisk. 

Nurse, being informed of the use which had been made 
of her words, gave in a declaration to the court, that when she 
said Hobbs and her daughter were of her company, she meant 
no more than that they were prisoners as well as herself ; and 
further, that being hard of hearing, she did not know what the 
foreman of the jury said. But her declaration had no effect. 

Mr. Noyes of Salem, a zealous prosecutor, excommunicated 
the poor old woman and delivered her to Satan, to whom he sup- 
posed she had formally given herself up many years before ; but 
her life and conversation 1 had been such that the remembrance 
thereof in a short time after wiped off all reproach occasioned 
by the civil and ecclesiastical sentence against her. 

It is said that at the trial of Sarah Good one of the afflicted 
persons fell into a fit, and after recovery cried out "that the 
prisoner had stabbed her and broke her knife in doing it ; w and 
a piece of the knife was found upon the afflicted person. But a 
young man declared that the day before he broke that very 
knife and threw away the piece, this afflicted person being then 
present. The court took so much notice as to bid her tell no 
more lies, but went on to improve her as a witness against other 
prisoners. 

Something happened not unlike this in a trial before Sir 
Matthew Hale. 2 The afflicted children, in their fits, would shriek 
out upon the least touch from Eose Cullender, one of the witches, 
but remained quite insensible when anybody else touched them. 
Lest there should be any fraud, Lord Cornwallis, Sir Edmund 
Bacon, Serjeant Keeling and other gentlemen attended one of 
the girls while she was in her fits at another part of the hall, and 



Conversation. Meaning here? 

2 This incident was at the witch- 
craft trials in England previously- 
referred to, and shows well the cruel 



wickedness and deceit of the ac- 
cusers as well as the astonishing 
credulity of the judges and people. 



WITCHCRAFT IK NEW ENGLAND. 



one of the witches was brought, and an apron was put before the 
girl's eyes. Then instead of the witch's hand, another person's 
hand was taken to touch the girl, who thereupon shrieked out 
as she used to do. The gentlemen returned and declared to the 
court they believed the whole thing was an imposture. Not- 
withstanding this, the witch was found guilty and the judge and 
all the court were fully satisfied with the verdict and awarded 
sentence accordingly, 

To return to the Salem trials. One of the women being 
told at her execution by the minister, Mr. Noyes, that he knew 
she was a witch and therefore advised her to confess, replied that 
he lied, and that she was no more a witch than he was a wizard ; 
and if he took away her life, God would give him blood to drink. 
There is a tradition among the Salem people that this man 
actually was choked to death with blood. 

1 At the trial of another of them it is said that one of the 
afflicted cried out in court upon Mr. Willard, a minister of Bos- 
ton, and that she was immediately sent out of court, and it was 
given out that she was mistaken in the person. There was one 
Willard then in prison for witchcraft. 

At the termination of the next adjournment, August 5th, 
George Burroughs, John Proctor and Elizabeth, his wife, John 
Wiilard, George and Martha Carrier, were all brought upon trial 
and condemned, and all executed upon the 19th of August, 
except Elizabeth Proctor. 

Burroughs had been a preacher several years before at Salem 
village, where there had been some misunderstanding between 
him and the people. Afterward he became a preacher at Wells, 
in the province of Maine. We will be a little more particular in 
our account of his trial. 

The afflicted persons and confessing witches were first exam- 



1 This incident is mentioned to 
show the fearful unfairness and 
partiality of the court. Against 
wretched old women the judges 
would take any evidence from any- 



body and, indeed, compel charges 
to be made. But when a friend of 
theirs was accused, they put the ac- 
cuser out of court without cere- 
mony. 



WITCHCRAFT IX XFXY EXGLAXl). 



ined ; for although, by the advice of the elders, their evidence 
was not conclusive, yet some presumption arose from it, and with 
other circumstances to corroborate it the proof might be suffi- 
cient to convict. One circumstance was, that, being a little man, 
he had performed feats beyond the strength of a giant, viz., had 
held out a gun of seven feet barrel with one hand, and had car- 
ried a barrel full of cider from a canoe to the shore. Upon his 
urging that an Indian who was present held out the gun also, 
and the witnesses not remembering that any Indian was there, it 
was said the Indian must have been the black man or the devil, 
who, the witnesses swore, looked like an Indian. 

Other evidence was given of his harsh, treatment of his wives, 
having been twice married, and of his pretending to them that 
he knew what had been said to them in his absence > and his per- 
suading them to give it under their hands in writing, and to 
swear to it, that they would not reveal his secrets ; and it was 
further said they had privately complained to the neighbors that 
their house was haunted with spirits. 

And a brother of one of his wives swore, that going out after 
strawberries, upon their return, he (Burroughs) went into the 
bushes on foot ; and though they rode a quick pace, yet when 
they came near home, to their astonishment they found him with 
them ; and he fell to chiding his wife for talking to her brother 
about him. and said he knew their thoughts, which the brother 
said was more than the devil knew ; to which Burroughs replied 
that his god told him. 

Against this evidence he urged that a man was with him, to 
show that another walked as fast as he did : and this was im- 
mediately determined to be the black man also. And upon the 
whole, he was confounded and used many twistings and turn- 
ings, 1 which I think we cannot wonder at. 

At his execution he concluded his dying prayer with the 



twistings and turnings — i.e., 
ways of explaining away the cir- 
cumstances brought forward against 



him, and of avoiding the absurd 
explanations of them given by his 
accusers. 



WITCHCRAFT IX XEW EXGIAXD. 



59 



Lord's Prayer, probably to convince some of the spectators of his 
innocence ; for it was the received opinion that a true witch could 
not say the Lord's Prayer without blundering ; and in many of 
the examinations it was used as a test ; and several old women 
not saying it right, this was improved against them. 

September 9th, Martha Cory, Mary Esty, Alice Parker, Ann 
Pudeater, Dorcas Hoar, and Mary Bradbury were tried : and 
September l?th, Margaret Scott, Wilmot Reed, Samuel Ward- 
well, Mary Parker, Abigail Falkner, Eebekah Eames, Mary 
Lacey, Ann Foster, and Abigail Hobbs ; and all received sentence 
of death. Those in italics were executed the 22d following. 

Mary Esty, who was sister to Xurse, gave in to the court a 
petition, in which she says she does not ask her own life, 
although she is conscious of her innocence, but prays them, be- 
fore they condemn any more, to examine the confessing witches 
more strictly ; for she is sure they have belied themselves and 
others, which will appear in the world to which she is going if 
it should not in this world. 

Those who were condemned and not executed I suppose all 
confessed their guilt. I have seen the confessions of several of 
them. Wardwell also confessed, but he recanted and suffered. 
His own wife as well as his daughter accused him and saved 
themselves. There are many instances, among the examinations, 
of children accusing their parents, and some of parents accusing 
their children. This is the only instance of a wife or husband 
accusing one the other, and surely this instance ought not to 
have been suffered. I shudder while I am relating it. 

Besides this irregularity there were others in the course of 
these trials. The facts laid in the indictments were witchcrafts 
upon particular persons ; there was no evidence of these facts 
but what was called spectral evidence, 1 which, in the opinion of 



1 Spectral evidence — i. e., evidence 
about the acts of the " specters" or 
" forms" of the accused persons. 
But the ministers, in their advice to 
the Governor (p. 54), said that a per- 
son ought not to be considered a 



witch merely because his "form" 
had been seen in wrong-doing; for 
the devil could assume the form of 
an innocent person, and thus secure 
his execution. 



60 



WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND. 



the ministers, was insufficient ; some of the other evidence was of 
facts ten or twenty years before/ which had no relation to those 
with which they were charged, and some of them no relation to 
the crime of witchcraft. Evidence is not admitted, even against 
the general character of persons upon trial, unless to encounter 
other evidence brought in favor of it ; much less ought their 
whole lives to be arraigned without giving time sufficient for 
defense. 

Giles Cory was the only person besides those already named 
who suffered death. He, seeing the fate of all who had put 
themselves upon trial, refused to plead. 2 But the judges, who 
had not been careful enough in observing the law in favor of 
the prisoners, determined to do it against this unhappy man, 
and he had judgment of peine fort et dure for standing mute 
and was pressed to death — the only instance which ever was, 
either before this time or since, in New England. In all ages of 
the world superstitious credulity has produced greater cruelty 
than is practised among the Hottentots or other nations whose 
belief of a Deity is called in question. 

This court of oyer and terminer, happily for the country, 



1 In trying a man for crime, it is 
always required in civilized coun- 
tries, that the accusers must make it 
certain that he committed the one 
special crime for which he is on trial, 
without reference to what he may 
have done at other times. To hang 
a man for murder because he stole 
a hundred dollars five years ago, 
would be itself a dreadful crime. 
But even worse than that was done 
in the witchcraft trials; for example, 
in the case of Burroughs, p. 58. 

2 When a man is brought before 
the court for trial, he is first re- 
quired to state distinctly whether he 
is guilty or not guilty. This state- 
ment is called his " plea/' and to 



make it is " to plead." No trial can 
proceed until the accused has 
pleaded. By refusing to plead, 
therefore, the accused can prevent 
the trial altogether, and accordingly 
the law formerly provided a horrible 
punishment for one who should be 
so obstinate. This was called peine 
fort et dure, which means literally, 
"a penalty harsh and severe." It 
consisted in stretching the culprit 
out flat on his back, with arms and 
feet extended to the utmost in four 
different directions, and then piling 
heavy weights of iron and stone 
upon his body till he died. The 
common name of this process was 
" pressing to death." 



WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND. 



61 



sat no more. Nineteen persons had been executed, all asserting 
their innocence ; but this was not enough to open the eyes of 
the people in general. The jail at Salem was filled with prison- 
ers, and many had been removed to other jails ; some were 
admitted to bail, all reserved for trial, a law having passed con- 
stituting a supreme standing court, with jurisdiction in capital 
as well as all other criminal cases. The general court 1 also 
showed their zeal against witchcraft, by a law passed in the 
words of the statute of James I. ; but this law was disallowed 
by the king. 2 If the court was of opinion that the statute ex- 
tended here, I see no necessity of a provincial act exactly in the 
same words ; if the statute did not extend here, I know not by 
what law the first that was tried could be sentenced to death. 

The time by law for holding the court at Salem was not 
until January. This gave opportunity for consideration, and 
this alone might have been sufficient for a change of opinions 
and measures ; but another reason has been given for it. Ordi- 
narily persons of the lowest rank in life have had the misfortune 
to be charged with witchcrafts ; and although many such had 
suffered, yet there remained in prison a number of women of as 
reputable families as any in the tow r ns where they lived, and 
several persons of still superior rank were hinted at by the pre- 
tended bewitched or by the confessing witches. Some had been 
publicly named. Dudley Bradstreet, a justice of the peace, who 
had been appointed one of President Dudley's Council, and was 
son to the worthy old Governor, then living, found it necessary 
to abscond. Having been remiss in prosecuting, he had been 
charged by some of the afflicted as a confederate. His brother, 
John Bradstreet, was forced to fly also. Calef says it was inti- 
mated that Sir William Phips's lady was among the accused. It 
is certain that one who pretended to be bewitched at Boston, where 
the infection was beginning to spread, charged the secretary of 
the colony of Connecticut. Mrs. Hale, wife of the minister of 



1 General Court — the name given 
to the Massachusetts legislature 



2 By the charter of Massachu- 
setts, the kiDg could veto auy law 
that did not suit him. 



62 



WITCHCRAFT IX XFW ENGLAND. 



Beverly, was accused also ; which caused her husband to alter 
his judgment and to be less active in prosecutions than he had 
been. 

At the court in January the grand jury found bills against 
about fifty for witchcraft, one or two men, the rest women ; but 
upon trial they were all acquitted, except three of the worst 
characters, and those the governor - reprieved for the king's 
mercy. All that were not brought upon trial he ordered to be 
discharged. Such a jail delivery was made at this court as has 
never been known at any other time in Xew England. 

Several persons had been charged and imprisoned in the 
county of Middlesex also, and at the first court at Charlestown 
they were brought to trial, but the jury acquitted them all. Some 
of the court were dissatisfied, but the juries changed sooner than 
the judges. However, it was not long before one at least of the 
judges of the first court of oyer and terminer was sensible of 
his error. Mr. Sewall, at a public fast, gave to the minister a 
bill acknowledging his error in the late proceedings, and desir- 
ing to humble himself in the sight of God and his people. It is 
said that the chief -justice, Mr. Stoughton, being informed of 
this action of one of his brethren, observed for himself that 
when he sat in judgment he had the fear of God before his eyes, 
and gave his opinion according to the best of his understanding; 
and although it might appear afterward that he had been in 
error, yet he saw no necessity of a public acknowledgment of it. 

One of the ministers, who in the time of it was fully con- 
vinced that the complaining persons were no impostors, and who 
vindicated his own conduct and that of the court in a narrative 
that he published, remarks not long after, in his diary, that 
many were of opinion that innocent blood had been shed. Xone 
of those who pretended to be afflicted were ever brought upon 
trial for their fraud : some of them proved profligate persons, 
abandoned to all vice ; others passed their lives in obscurity or 
contempt. 

The opinion which prevailed in Xew England for many years 
after this tragedy, that there was some tiling preternatural in it, 



WITCHCRAFT IX XFW EXGIAXD. 



03 



and that it was not all the effect of fraud and imposture, pro- 
ceeded from the reluctance in human nature to reject errors once 
imbibed. As the principal actors went off the stage, this opin- 
ion has gradually lessened ; and perhaps it is owing to a respect 
to the memory of their immediate ancestors that many do not 
yet seem to be fully convinced. 

There are a great number of persons who are willing to sup- 
pose the accusers to have been under bodily disorders which 
affected their imaginations. This is kind and charitable, but 
seems to be winking the truth out of sight. A little attention 
must force conviction that the whole was a scheme of fraud and 
imposture, begun by young girls who at first, perhaps, thought 
of nothing more than being pitied and indulged, and continued 
by adult persons, who were afraid of being accused themselves. 
The one and the other, rather than confess their fraud, suffered 
the lives of so many innocents to be taken away. 

Define the meaning of the following words : 



Constitute 

Xominate 

Accusation 

Fractious 

Excrescence 

Plenary 



Presumption 

Infallible 

Legerdemain 

Obnoxious 

Interpretation 



Sedulous 
Assiduous 
Credulity 
Exquisite 



Zealous 

Corroborate 

Indictment 

Encounter 

Abscond 

Vindicate 

Impostor 

Preternatural 

Reluctance 



Molestation 
Deplorable 
Capacity 




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